BUKRIS  A.  JENKINS 


! 


Hi!! 


THE  LIBRARY 

OF 
THE  UNIVERSITY 

OF  CALIFORNIA 
LOS  ANGELES 


THE  MAN  IN  THE  STREET 
AND  RELIGION 


The  Man  in  the  Street 
and  Religion 


BY 
BURRIS  A.  JENKINS 


NEW  YORK        CHICAGO        TORONTO 

Fleming  H.  Revell  Company 

LONDON       AND       EDINBURGH 


Copyright,  1917,  by 
FLEMING  H.  REVELL  COMPANY 


New  York:  158  Fifth  Avenue 
Chicago:  17  N.  Wabash  Ave. 
Toronto :  25  Richmond  St.,  W. 
London:  21  Paternoster  Square 
Edinburgh:  100  Princes  Street 


1884177 


n 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

THE  author  makes  no  attempt,  in  this 
little  book,  to  be  systematically  theo 
logical.  He  has  no  such  purpose,  even 
if  he  had  the  needful  ability.  He  has  made 
only  the  attempt  to  state  what  he  believes  to 
be  some  of  the  prevailing  popular  conceptions 
of  religious  truth,  in  a  popular  manner;  to 
trace  some  of  the  implications  and  results;  and 
to  indicate  what  seem  to  him  to  be  the  lines 
upon  which  these  popular  beliefs  are  likely  to 
grow  and  should  be  encouraged  to  grow. 

The  "  modern  instances  "  set  forth  by  way 
of  illustration,  unless  otherwise  stated,  were 
either  shared  in  by  the  author  or  came  under 
his  personal  observation. 

Years  ago  in  a  small  class  in  English  com 
position  at  Harvard  University,  a  "  daily 
theme "  of  the  present  writer's  was  under 
going  dissection  at  the  hands  of  the  late  Prof. 
A.  S.  Hill,  of  rhetorical  memory.  At  last  the 
critic  tartly  observed : 

"  This  narrative  would  do  very  well,  if  it  had 
the  ring  of  truth.  It  does  not  make  the  im 
pression  that  the  incident  ever  took  place." 

"  But,  Professor,"  triumphantly  replied  the 
7 


8  PREFATORY  NOTE 

young  student,  "  it  is  true.  I  was  there  and 
saw  it  all." 

"  That  may  well  be,"  snapped  the  old  gen 
tleman  ;  "  but  you  must  make  it  sound  true." 

The  student  was  stung  by  the  splendor  of 
a  sudden  thought  and  a  new  one ;  and  ever  since 
that  day  he  has  lived  in  mortal  terror  of  tell 
ing  something  that  did  not  sound  true.  He 
has,  therefore,  thought  it  necessary  to  add  this 
word  of  asseveration,  lest  at  any  time  he  may 
have  been  lacking  in  verisimilitude. 

For  one  or  two  of  the  outlines  of  chapters 
the  author  may  be  indebted  to  conversations 
held  many  years  ago  with  a  pioneer  preacher 
in  the  West,  Alexander  Proctor.  He  is  glad 
to  acknowledge  this  and  many  other  intel 
lectual  obligations  to  this  wise  old  man. 

B.  A.  J. 

KANSAS  CITY,  Mo. 


CONTENTS 

I.  HE  ALSO  Is  A  CHILD  OF  GOD  ;  sup 
porting  the  Proposition  that  the 
Man  in  the  Street  is  Religious  .  1 1 

II.  FALLOW-LAND;  maintaining  that 
there  are  Unexplored  Depths  in 
the  Average  Man  ....  26 

III.  SOME  ONE  TO  COME;  setting  forth 

the   Idea  that  Man  must  Look 
outside  Himself  for  Help    .       .      46 

IV.  THE  CHARMING  RABBI;  or  Jesus 

Christ  as  a  Prophet  for  the  Mind 

of  Man 69 

V.  THE  UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL  ; 
or  Jesus  Christ  as  a  Priest  for 
the  Heart  .....  94 

VI.  THE  KINGDOM  WITH  UNSEEN 
BOUNDARIES;  or  Jesus  Christ  as 
a  King  of  the  Will  .  .  .120 

VII.  WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?  And 
what  will  Ye  do  with  the  Man 
called  Jesus? 150 

VIII.    THE  CHARMED  LIFE;  or  the  Rela 
tion  of  Man  to  the  Laws  of  the 

World 182 

9 


10  CONTENTS 

IX.  How  ARE  THE  SCRIPTURES  IN 
SPIRED  ?  or  the  Place  of  the  Bible 
in  the  Thought  of  the  Average 
Man 203 

X.    THE  POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE; 

or  the  Future  Destiny  of  Man    .    225 


HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD 

TIME  was  when  men  were  urged  to 
"  get  religion."  The  assumption  was 
that  it  was  a  commodity  to  be  obtained, 
a  will-o'-the-wisp,  the  pot  of  gold  at  the  end 
of  some  rainbow,  to  be  pursued  and,  if  possible, 
captured.  We  are  at  last  dimly  discerning  that 
men  have  got  religion  already.  They  do  not 
need  to  get  it.  They  only  need  to  develop  it. 

Religion  is  not  an  extraneous  article,  a  gem, 
a  talisman,  an  amulet,  a  rare  exotic,  a  philoso 
pher's  stone,  to  be  sought  high  and  low,  far 
and  near,  and  painfully  added  to  the  spiritual 
furniture  or  treasure-house.  The  pearl  of 
greatest  price  is  not  religion,  but  the  King 
dom  of  God ;  and  if  the  Kingdom  of  God  means 
anything,  it  means  the  progressive  dominion  of 
the  Father  in  the  "  Dark  Chamber,"  in  the  soul 
of  His  child.  To  purchase  this,  one  may  well 
sell  his  all. 

To  look  upon  the  seething  mass  of  men  in 
the  city  streets,  or  on  the  countryside,  the  navvy 
in  the  ditch  or  on  the  right-of-way,  the  chauf- 
11 


12     HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD 

feur  and  the  engine-man,  the  plumber  and  the 
plutocrat,  the  man  with  the  hoe  and  the  man 
with  the  quirt,  the  clerk  and  the  architect,  the 
child  of  the  silver  spoon  and  the  child  of  the 
rookery,  and  to  declare  that  all  alike  are  re 
ligious,  naturally  religious,  seems  a  daring 
stand  to  take.  But  that  is  the  precise  position 
to  which  we  are  beginning  to  come.  The  man 
in  the  street,  the  common  man,  Walt  Whit 
man's  average  man,  the  composite  made  up  of 
the  myriads,  the  sum  of  all  sorts  and  condi 
tions, — he,  the  wonderful,  the  acme  of  all  the 
great  Creator's  work  so  far  as  we  can  see, 
despite  "  the  sin  wherewith  the  face  of  man  is 
blackened,"  he  also  is  a  son  of  God;  he  has 
religion. 

He  may  not  believe  it;  he  may  stoutly  deny 
it ;  but  he  is  simply  unaware.  "  I  religious  ?  " 
he  may  say.  "  You  are  mistaken,  man.  I  do 
not  go  to  church.  I  have  not  seen  the  inside  of 
a  church  in  twenty  years.  I  don't  believe  in  it. 
I  believe  in  getting  what  I  can  out  of  life,  its 
goods,  its  pleasures.  I  live  for  the  day.  Let 
the  future  take  care  of  itself."  Pressed  fur 
ther,  he  may  declare:  "  If  I  have  any  religion, 
it  is  humanity.  My  lodge  is  my  religion. 
'  Do  as  you  would  be  done  by  '  ;  that  is  my  re 
ligion."  If  it  is  brought  to  his  attention  that 
even  these,  after  all,  are  religion,  he  will  shake 


HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD     13 

his  head  solemnly  and  earnestly,  saying :  "  I  am 
not  a  religious  man.  My  neighbor  Brown,  my 
neighbor  Jones,  they  are  naturally  religious. 
They  go  to  church,  they  pass  the  plate,  they 
lead  the  singing,  they  like  to  pray  in  meeting. 
I  am  not  like  that.  No,  I  am  an  irreligious 
man.  I  am  not  sure  I  believe  in  anything." 

His  very  solemnity  is  earnest  of  his  sub 
stratum  of  religion.  He  is  only  ill-informed 
as  to  what  religion  is;  thinks  it  is  a  matter  of 
vocal  sound,  of  plate-passing,  church  building, 
nail-driving,  "  church-work,"  busy-ness.  He  is 
unaware  of  the  deep  vibrations  in  his  own  soul 
answering  the  notes  of  the  voice  of  God,  deep 
calling  unto  deep.  He  is  unconsciously  utter 
ing  the  only  heresy  there  is,  the  denial  of  his 
own  sonship  to  God;  for  to  deny  that  one  is 
religious  is  to  deny  that  God  is  one's  Father, 
and  to  assert  that  He  blundered  in  making  one, 
that  He  is  no  God. 

Oliver  Wendell  Holmes  once  said,  "  There 
are  one-story  intellects,  two-story  intellects,  and 
three-story  intellects  with  skylights."  Ay,  but 
there  are  none  but  three-story  souls,  and  all  of 
them  open  to  the  light  of  God.  Their  sky 
lights  may  be  blurred  and  blackened,  soot- 
covered  and  frosted;  the  stairways  may  be 
clogged,  rickety,  and  vile ;  but  every  glass  may 
be  cleared,  every  step  mended,  and  the  light 


14     HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD 

that  never  was  on  sea  or  land  flood  every  nook 
and  cranny  of  them  all. 

Those  inarticulate  stirrings  of  the  soul,  deep 
and  almost  insensate  rumblings  in  cavernous 
depths,  that  answer  to  the  moods  of  nature,  to 
music,  to  the  mysteries  in  humanity — its  hero 
isms,  its  criminalities — these  are  index,  are  they 
not,  to  the  God-kinship,  possibly  rudimentary, 
arrested  in  development,  smothered  and 
choked,  but  indubitably  existent  in  the  un 
marked  galleries  of  man's  mammoth  cave. 

"  Like  tides  on  a  crescent  sea-beach, 

When  the  moon  is  new  and  thin, 
Into  our  hearts  high  yearnings 

Come  welling  and  surging  in, — 
In  from  the  mystic  ocean 

Whose  rim  no  foot  has  trod, — 
Some  of  us  call  it  longing, 

And  others  call  it  God." 

Let  us  test  the  man  in  the  street  and  see  if 
these  things  indeed  be  so. 

He  is  playing,  on  an  afternoon  of  early 
spring,  over  an  oak-and-elm-lined  golf-course. 
He  is  distinctly  a  man  of  the  world,  a  corpora 
tion  lawyer,  one  would  say  offhand  a  material 
ist.  Suddenly  on  the  edge  of  number  three 
green  he  stops,  stands  as  in  a  dream,  his  stick 
listlessly  held  in  hand,  his  ball  forgotten,  his 
eyes  seeking  the  green  fastnesses  of  the  great 


overhanging  oak.  His  absorbed  and  eager  op 
ponent  putts  alone.  At  last  the  latter  looks 
up  and  asks,  "  What  is  it?  " 

"  Oh,  nothing,"  comes  the  answer,  "  Only 
the  first  mocking-bird  I've  heard  this  year." 

Then  the  two  trudge  on  under  a  radiant 
canopy  of  song ;  and  the  man  of  the  world  bears 
the  imprint  of  the  music  through  the  afternoon. 
Whose  voice  has  been  speaking  to  his  breast? 
Not  the  bird's  alone. 

A  sailorman  is  standing  his  midnight  watch 
in  the  waist  of  a  little  brigantine  in  the  south 
Pacific.  The  moon  floods  with  light  the  still, 
phosphorescent  waters,  scarcely  stirred  with  a 
breath  of  wind ;  and  the  Southern  Cross  hangs 
yonder  on  the  rim  of  the  world.  A  sleepless 
passenger  moves  out  for  a  breath  of  air,  and 
pauses  to  listen  as  he  hears  the  lonely  sailor's 
softly  hummed  song : 

"Jesus,  lover  of  my  soul, 
Let  me  to  Thy  bosom  fly" 

The  sailor's  hymn!  Beecher  said  he  would 
rather  have  written  it  than  to  have  sat  on  all 
the  thrones  of  all  the  kingdoms  of  this  world. 
This  sailor  heard  it  from  some  Salvation  Army 
squad,  in  some  seaman's  mission,  or  in  some 
far-away  rural  Sunday  school  of  childhood; 
there  may  be  no  grain  of  religion  in  his  me- 


16     HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD 

chanical  singing.  Well,  move  foiAvard,  passen 
ger,  and  talk  with  him  an  hour  on  the  deck  of 
the  little  sail-ship,  in  midocean,  in  the  midnight. 
Just  give  him  rein,  let  him  speak  out.  God  is 
holding  soft  and  dim  converse  in  the  heart  of  a 
rough  man. 

A  young  student  stands  at  the  side  of  a 
mogul-engine  on  a  trans-continental  railway. 
He  begs  the  engine-man  for  a  ride  in  the  cab. 
"  I  know  it's  contrary  to  rules,  but  I  promise 
not  to  talk." 

A  moment's  scrutiny  through  great  steel- 
rimmed  spectacles  from  a  pair  of  piercing  eyes, 
set  under  the  black,  beetling  brows  of  a  great 
head,  on  the  massive  shoulders  of  six-feet- 
three;  then, 

"  All  right.    Climb  in." 

Away  over  the  great  divide ;  across  the  alkali 
desert ;  glimmering  water  off  miles  to  the  right ; 
a  violated  promise,  and  "  What  lake  is  that, 
Cap?"  "No  lake  at  all.  Mirage!"  hurled 
backward  over  a  shoulder  through  the  cab- 
window.  Then,  hour  after  hour,  fifty  miles  to 
the  hour,  through  sage  and  mesquite  and 
chaparral,  past  the  Sink  of  the  Humboldt,  past 
the  twilight,  into  the  night. 

At  a  watering-tank,  the  young  man  swings 
down. 

"  Much  obliged,  and  good-night ; "  and,  as 


HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD     17 

he  starts  back  to  the  Pullman,  to  his  surprise 
the  engine-man  reaches  out  a  great  hand  and 
grips  his  own  and  holds  it.  They  had  never 
seen  each  other  before  that  day;  knew  nothing 
of  each  other.  Finally,  after  another  long 
piercing  look  downward  from  the  great  black 
eyes,  the  engine-man  says : 

"  Pray  for  us,  will  you  ?  " 

"  Certainly.    Are  you  a  religious  man  ?  " 

"  No.  Once  was.  Not  any  more.  Good 
night." 

They  never  met  again;  but  the  lad  never 
forgot  that  face.  He  would  know  it  in  a  thou 
sand,  over  twenty  years  after.  It  was  the  face 
of  a  child  of  God,  roughened  and  seamed  and 
scarred,  a  child  that  needed  his  Father — and  he 
knew  it.  Please  God,  he  has  found  Him. 

One  more  picture.  It  is  a  sportsmen's  camp 
in  Oklahoma,  by  a  stream,  under  great  trees, 
deep  in  a  thicket  through  which  a  path  is  cut 
to  the  camp-fire  and  the  tent.  The  night  is  clear 
and  still;  stars  are  all  over  the  sky;  it  is  crisp 
and  cold.  Far  off  to  the  southeast  a  pack  of 
hounds  is  opening,  and  far  off  to  the  northeast 
another  is  answering.  Horn  is  calling  to  horn, 
as  the  two  packs  converge  to  the  rendezvous  at 
the  camp.  One  of  the  hunters  strolls  out 
through  the  thicket-path  and  sees  what  he  sup 
poses  to  be  bolls  of  cotton  on  the  stems,  lying 


18     HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD 

scattered  about  the  underbrush.  But  next 
morning  his  Oklahoma  friend  calls  to  him, 
saying : 

"  Come  here,  see !  The  strangest  thing,  and 
the  most  beautiful  thing  you  ever  saw! " 

Those  apparent  cotton-bolls  were  frost  flow 
ers  woven  around  the  stem  of  a  peculiar  weed 
— only  this  one  kind  of  weed  and  no  other — 
by  the  ringers  of  the  King  of  carvers.  What 
ever  the  scientific  explanation,  whether  due  to 
the  exuding  sap,  the  exhalations  of  the  plant, 
there  they  were, — the  lilies  of  the  frost,  the 
roses  of  the  night,  large  as  American  Beauties, 
and  pure  white  as  the  snow. 

The  Oklahoma  man  -  was  no  church-man. 
He  had  ridden  in  when  the  strip  was  opened 
and  had  fought  then,  as  he  fights  now,  for  his 
stake.  But  he  was  in  a  visible  ecstasy  over  the 
frost-artistry.  He  could  talk  of  nothing  else 
for  an  hour.  Whether  he  thought  of  the  hum 
ble,  broken,  defaced  lives  that  were  like  this 
weed,  around  which  the  Great  Artist  weaves 
the  flowers  of  His  subtle,  delicate  beauty,  who 
shall  say?  But  the  stirring  of  the  soul  was 
clear  to  the  observer;  the  ecstasy  was  enough, 
in  the  kindly  eyes  and  the  honest  face,  to  teach 
the  kinship  between  the  Artist  and  His  off 
spring.  God's  weaving  had  been  not  in  vain. 

But  why  multiply  instances  ?    They  are  pat- 


HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD     19 

ent  everywhere  to  him  who  will  look  and  see. 
The  field  is  white  to  harvest.  The  seed  of 
God  is  thick  in  the  soil  of  men.  The  answer 
is  universal  to  His  natural,  His  holy  laws. 

It  is  not  merely  to  him  who  in  the  love  of 
nature  holds  communion  with  her  visible  forms 
that  she  speaks  a  various  language;  but  it  is 
also  to  the  rough  plainsman  who  rides  alone 
the  fences  of  a  short-grass  ranche,  to  the  yokel 
on  the  thankless  rocky  hills  of  a  New  England 
or  an  Ozark  farm,  to  the  milkman  leaving  his 
early  bottles  on  the  steps  under  a  rising  sun,  to 
the  negro  sluicing  down  those  steps  of  a  sum 
mer  morning.  To  all  of  these  come,  now  and 
again,  perhaps  dimly  perceived,  perhaps  not 
perceived  at  all,  the  voices  of  earth,  air,  and 
sky,  as  really  as  came  the  voices  of  the  stars 
to  those  nomadic  peoples  on  the  Syrian  plain 
who  manifested  so  evident  a  genius  for  re 
ligion. 

It  is  not  merely  to  the  Italian  or  the  German, 
nurtured  in  homes  of  music,  that  harmonies 
come  with  nameless  emotions,  sounding  the 
deep  places  of  the  soul,  and  render  restless  as 
by  an  angel's  troubling  the  waters  of  the  inner 
pools.  It  may  be  but  the  response  of  a  bar 
barous  heart  to  a  tom-tom,  a  semi-savage  to  a 
brazen  cymbal,  a  negro  to  a  banjo,  or  a  Swede 
farm  hand  to  a  wheezing  accordion,  but  it  is 


20     HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD 

none  the  less  a  response.  It  is  deep  calling  unto 
deep.  Very  rudimentary  may  be  these  intima 
tions  of  religion,  but  they  are  there. 

It  is  not  merely  to  the  learned  in  history  that 
the  knowledge  of  the  movements  of  the  tribes 
and  nations,  the  rise  and  decline  of  kingdoms, 
dynasties,  empires,  comes  with  a  certain  awe; 
but  also  to  the  common  man  come  moments 
when  the  clash  of  arms,  the  wreck  of  ocean 
greyhounds,  the  storms  of  unreasoning  hate 
that  rage  between  nations  divided  by  a  narrow 
frith,  strike  him  dumb  with  wonder  and  awe. 
Kings  and  governments,  power  and  pageantry, 
daze  and  drug  him ;  the  crowd-psychology  that 
he  does  not  fathom  sweeps  him  along;  he 
thrills  instantly  to  the  heroic;  he  answers  an 
grily  to  the  dastardly;  his  spine  crinkles  and 
crawls  under  the  spell  of  a  national  anthem  or 
marching  song,  while  tears  of  which  he  is 
ashamed  spring  in  his  eyes.  Altogether  he  is 
a  wonderful  instrument,  of  many  strings  and 
subtleties,  vibrating,  constantly  vibrating  in 
under-  and  over-tones,  to  the  tremendous  dia 
pason  of  his  Father's  playing  on  the  great 
pipes  of  the  world. 

Be  blest  with  large  contacts  with  common 
men,  all  kinds  of  men,  and,  though  you  will 
find  them  often  mean,  often  hard,  often  cruel, 
reckless,  dangerous,  eaten  up  with  self,  yet 


HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD     21 

you  will  on  occasion,  at  some  moment  of  un 
conscious  strain  and  test,  find  them  gentle, 
kind,  responsive,  blunderingly  emotional,  even 
awkwardly  sentimental.  The  rougher  and  the 
harder  they  ordinarily  are,  the  kinder  and  the 
more  discerning  and  even  delicate  they  some 
times  become.  It  is  not  contact  with  men  that 
destroys  faith  in  men.  It  is  isolation,  physical 
or  spiritual,  that  makes  the  misanthrope. 

Some  three  thousand  years  ago,  well-nigh  in 
the  infancy  of  the  race,  a  daring,  dashing, 
blood-stained  outlaw — who  held  toward  the  or 
dered  governments  of  men  some  such  position 
as  a  modern  Mexican  bandit — was  hemmed  in 
by  his  enemies  in  a  narrow  plain.  One  night, 
in  a  fit  of  homesickness,  he  gave  audible  ex 
pression  to  a  yearning  for  his  boyhood  home, 
and  a  drink  from  the  spring  where  he  had 
watched  his  father's  sheep.  Three  of  his  re 
tainers,  taking  their  lives  in  their  hands,  stole 
through  the  hostile  lines,  ran  through  the  night, 
and  by  morning  returned  with  a  cruse  of  water 
from  the  well  of  Bethlehem.  David  took  it  in 
his  hand,  looked  deep  into  the  eyes  of  his  de 
voted  followers,  then,  saying: 

"  How  can  I  drink  the  blood  of  my  mighty 
men?  "  he  poured  the  water  on  the  ground  as 
a  libation  to  his  God. 

An  act  of  sentiment  this,  of  sentiment  pure 


22     HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD 

and  simple.  You  would  scarcely  expect  to  find 
it  in  a  man  of  such  type?  That  is  precisely 
where  to  expect  it.  They  are  the  kind  of  men 
capable  of  the  "  Shepherd  Psalm "  or  the 
"  Song  of  the  Open  Road."  Men  upon  the 
seven  seas  or  the  seven  hills  or  the  seven 
plains, — lumberjacks,  seamen,  farm  hands,  ma 
chinists  and  their  helpers,  gamblers  on  'change, 
bartenders,  sometimes  even  wealthy  men,  and 
almost  always  negroes,  have  in  their  hearts 
some  corner,  small  or  large,  where  dwells  a 
great  love  or  longing,  a  protective  instinct  or 
deep  generosity,  an  ideal  or  an  image  wor 
shipped,  for  which,  if  need  were,  they  would 
sell  their  lives.  Indeed,  no  man  is  much  good 
who  would  not  die  for  something  or  somebody. 

Here  is  a  modern  example  of  the  same  heroic 
sentiment,  the  same  spirit  of  devoted  friend 
ship: 

Three  young  men,  boyhood  friends  of  the 
author,  started  in  1898  for  the  Klondyke  with 
the  gold  seekers.  Their  outfit  was  the  best  that 
money  could  buy,  fifteen  hundred  pounds  to  the 
man.  They  were  young  lads  about  town  in  a 
Western  city,  of  excellent  families,  well  taught, 
well  mothered  and  well  fathered.  They  had 
some  of  the  old  frontier  blood  in  their  veins. 

The  youngest  of  the  three — Shelley  was  his 
name — was  the  best  known  to  the  present 


HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD     23 

writer.  He  was  not  what  you  might  call  a 
religious  lad.  That  is,  he  seldom  appeared  in 
Sunday  schools ;  and  he  had  doubtless  not  been 
in  a  prayer  meeting  since  carried  there  in  his 
mother's  arms.  But  that  same  mother  put  a 
little  Testament  into  his  kit,  saying : 

"  Shelley,  when  you  get  among  those  ice- 
mountains,  you  must  not  forget  God." 

Shelley  smiled  indulgently,  and  kissed  his 
mother  good-bye. 

The  going  was  easy  enough  by  rail  and 
water.  But  when  they  struck  the  terrors  of 
the  Skagway  Trail,  and  especially  when  they 
came,  after  days  and  days  of  the  utmost  hard 
ship  and  peril,  to  the  Chilkoot  Pass,  where 
men  sat  down  and  whimpered  like  children, 
alternately  cursed  and  prayed,  died  by  scores 
and  were  tumbled  over  icy  precipices  out  of  the 
way,  then  it  was  that  Shelley  got  out  his  little 
Testament.  Every  night  he  it  was,  this  lad  of 
all  others,  who,  gathering  his  companions  to 
gether  in  the  tent,  or  round  the  fire,  said: 

"  Boys,  we  must  not  forget  God."  He  read 
to  them.  He  even  prayed  aloud  with  them  and 
for  them,  and  they  were  grateful. 

At  Chilkoot  Pass  an  avalanche  had  buried 
teams  of  dogs  and  many  men.  For  two  days 
these  boys  worked  with  others  to  rescue  any 
smothering  survivors  and  to  clear  the  trail.  On 


24     HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD 

the  third  Shelley  was  seized  with  meningitis, 
fatal  to  so  many  of  those  adventurers,  and  died. 

One  of  the  lads  stayed  with  the  stuff  to  sell 
it;  and  the  other,  wrapping  the  frozen  body  of 
his  friend  in  canvas,  started  with  it  back  to 
civilization.  Eight  days  and  nights,  over  al 
most  impassable  trails  of  ice  and  snow,  most  of 
the  time  with  the  dead  body  upon  his  shoulders, 
he  fought  his  way  back  to  open  water,  and  so 
home  to  Shelley's  mother. 

Most  men,  in  those  days,  were  left  where 
they  fell.  In  Cuba  they  were  buried;  in  the 
Klondyke  they  were  not.  But  here  was  one 
man  brought  back  to  his  mother  because  he 
had  a  friend.  Many  heroic  deeds  were  per 
formed  in  those  years  of  the  closing  century 
by  young  American  lads,  in  the  lead-laden 
breeze  of  Guantanamo,  in  the  thick  sad  swamps 
of  Luzon,  among  the  ice-mountains  of  the  Far 
North;  but  there  was  no  more  heroic  deed 
among  them  all  than  that  of  Paschal  Parker 
who,  for  friendship's  sake,  bore  home  upon  his 
shoulders,  all  alone,  the  dead  body  of  Shelley 
Gill. 

No  matter  if  a  man  has  defaced  the  image 
of  his  parenthood,  wilfully  and  rebelliously 
defaced  it;  that  image  is  there.  If  he  examine 
himself  he  will  find  it.  Said  Monsieur  Made 
leine,  Mayor  of  M.-sur-M.,  to  a  company  of 


HE  ALSO  IS  A  CHILD  OF  GOD     25 

farmers,  "Remember  this;  there  are  no  bad 
plants  and  no  bad  men.  There  are  only  bad 
cultivators."  An  old  man,  a  most  prominent 
man  in  American  national  life,  whose  name  if 
mentioned  would  be  instantly  recognized,  who 
for  many  years  shaped  the  opinions  and  led  the 
battles  of  one  of  the  great  political  parties;  a 
man  who  had  "  gone  all  the  paces,"  and  still 
was  going  them;  who,  so  far  as  anybody 
seemed  to  know,  feared  neither  God  nor  man 
nor  devil,  was  in  dire  distress.  Such  family 
troubles  as  few  men  have  to  bear  were  his. 
Degenerate  sons  of  a  stalwart  father  were  his 
sons.  Iron  worse  than  the  iron  of  death  had 
pierced  his  soul.  He  stood  like  a  Spartan  under 
it  all.  Said  his  friend  the  pastor: 

"  How  is  it  that  you  can  bear  such  sorrow 
as  you  do,  so  bravely  ?  " 

"  Because,  sir,"  answered  the  veteran,  "  I  am 
a  religious  man." 

And  then  he  confided  what  few  knew,  that 
he  was  a  member  of  a  little  church,  far  away 
in  the  State  of  his  birth,  where  his  mother  and 
his  father  slept ;  and  he  had  been  a  member  all 
these  years.  Whatever  his  life  had  been,  what 
ever  the  disobedience  of  sonship,  however 
marred  the  heavenly  visage,  his  philosophy  was 
Christian;  deep  down  he  was  a  religious  man; 
he  also  was  a  child  of  God — and  knew  it. 


II 

FALLOW-LAND 

WHAT  the  man  in  the  street  needs,  then, 
is  not  to  get  religion,  but  to  develop 
the  religion  he  already  has.  He  can 
never  be  well-born  until  he  is  fully  born.  Much 
of  him  that  has  a  right  to  be  full-born  remains 
abortive.  So  he  never  completely  lives.  Just 
as  nature  abhors  a  vacuum,  so  does  your  prac 
tical  hard-headed  American  abhor  unutilized 
raw  material.  If  he  is  once  convinced  that 
such  material  exists  within  himself,  he  will  be 
come  anxious  to  conserve,  exploit,  increase  it. 
A  small  party  of  people  was  swinging,  at 
sunset,  on  a  flat  freight-car,  with  engine  at 
tached,  through  the  Grand  Canon  of  the  Ar 
kansas.  It  was  a  gorgeous  ride — no  less  an 
adjective  is  adequate.  There  was  the  boiling, 
tumbling  river;  there  were  the  massed  pines 
to  the  timber  line;  and  above  were  the  cliffs 
of  red,  yellow,  and  brown  sandstone,  illumined 
by  the  long  vermilion  rays  of  the  setting  sun 
— twenty-seven  hundred  feet  of  precipice  on 
either  side,  half  a  mile  of  sheer  grandeur. 
26 


FALLOW-LAND  27 

While  all  present  upon  that  swaying  car  were 
uttering  whispered,  awe-struck  comments,  one 
stolid  business  man  from  Buffalo  sat  silent. 
Some  one  nudged  him  and  asked  his  opinion 
of  the  scene. 

"  I  was  just  thinking,"  he  observed,  "  what 
an  extravagant  waste  of  raw  material!  " 

Whether  these  prosaic  words  were  uttered  to 
veil  an  inner  tumult,  who  shall  say?  But  ap 
parently,  at  least,  the  man  from  Buffalo  was 
thinking  only  of  brownstone  fronts,  of  fac 
tories  and  tall  smokestacks,  into  which  these 
wondrous  cliffs  might  have  been  built.  At 
least,  he  was  anxious  that  nothing  should  lie 
around  loose  and  unutilized.  Would  he  not 
be  equally  distressed,  if  once  he  were  shown 
that  there  were  crags  of  grandeur  in  his  soul 
that  never  had  been  lighted  up  for  human 
beholder,  let  alone  had  never  been  built  into 
structures  for  human  use? 

An  old  singer  at  his  devotions,  well-nigh  in 
the  prehistoric  centuries,  once  called  upon  his 
soul,  and  all  that  was  within  him,  to  bless  the 
Lord,  and  His  holy  name.  It  gives  one  a  thrill 
to  listen  to  him,  for  it  is  a  refreshing  thing, 
in  a  world  of  half-heartedness,  to  find  now  and 
then  a  man  who  calls  upon  all  that  is  within 
him  to  sing  the  song,  to  do  the  task,  to  lead  the 
life  that  is  given  him.  So  much  of  the  work  of 


28  FALLOW-LAND 

the  world,  and  the  singing  of  the  world,  is 
lackadaisical,  half-souled,  that  it  is  a  genuine 
joy  when  we  meet,  when  we  come  into  touch 
with,  or  when  we  listen  to  one  who  throws  all 
his  being  into  the  message  of  his  life. 

Herein  lies  the  difference  between  great 
singers  and  ordinary  mediocre  singers,  that  the 
former  sing  with  what  we  call  "  soul,"  "  tem 
perament,"  "spirit";  and  herein  lies  the  dif 
ference  between  the  great  work  of  the  world 
and  the  cheap,  ordinary  work  of  the  world, 
that  those  who  do  the  former  cast  into  it  all 
that  they  have  of  heart,  of  will,  of  spirit,  and 
of  power. 

There  are  capabilities,  there  are  powers, 
there  are  possibilities  in  all  of  us  of  which  we 
seldom  dream — capacities,  depths,  that  we  sel 
dom  reach  and  sound.  There  is  much  of  un 
developed  raw  material;  much  of  fallow 
ground  into  which  plowshare  never  yet  has 
struck;  much  of  rich,  deep  soil;  and  living, 
springing  waters,  into  which  the  drill  never  yet 
has  pierced;  much  latent  force  and  capability, 
which  have  never  been  called  into  play. 

Even  physically  it  is  true  that  few  of  us 
realize  of  what  we  are  capable  until  put  to 
the  proof.  We  can  endure  far  more,  accom 
plish  far  more  than  any  of  us  believe  until  we 
try.  Physicians  tell  us  that  we  are,  most  of  us 


FALLOW-LAND  29 

at  least,  seventy-five  per  cent,  stronger  than  we 
think  we  are.  Here  is  a  lad,  let  us  say,  who 
weighs  one  hundred  and  twenty  pounds — thin, 
spindling — whom  any  able-bodied  boy  in  the 
community  can  throw  with  one  hand  tied  be 
hind  him.  But  put  that  little  fellow  into  the 
hands  of  the  expert  trainer  at  school  or  col 
lege,  and  there  is  no  one  in  the  State,  perhaps 
the  nation,  who  can  touch  him  for  a  hundred 
yards,  two-forty,  or  a  mile. 

Or  here  is  a  great  clumsy,  hulking  fellow 
who,  if  he  only  knew  it,  might  get  the  best  of 
Mr.  Fitzsimmons,  Mr.  Jeffries,  or  whoever  is 
the  latest  champion.  The  lines  of  the  poet 
might  be  paraphrased  to  read: 

Full  many  a  brute  of  deepest  dye,  I  ween, 
The  dark,  unfathom'd  streets  and  alleys  bear. 

Full  many  a  pugilist  is  born  to  spar  unseen, 
And  waste  his  muscle  on  the  country  air. 

Others  of  us  might  gain  honor,  perform 
services,  and  bear  responsibilities,  if  only  once 
we  could  find  out  what  we  are'  good  for,  and 
come  to  believe  in  ourselves. 

Somewhere  on  a  New  England  farm,  or  an 
Arizona  ranche,  at  this  hour,  is  a  woman  sing 
ing, — singing  to  the  accompaniment  of  her  pots 
and  pans,  singing  to  the  delectation  of  one  lone 
man  in  the  barn  lot  or  the  sheep  pasture — and  it 


30  FALLOW-LAND 

is  something  to  sing  for  the  delight  of  one 
lone  man!  But  if  the  woman  only  knew  of 
the  bird  locked  up  in  her  throat,  and,  under 
guidance,  could  set  it  free,  she  might  sing  for 
the  emotional  and  spiritual  uplift  of  hundreds 
and  even  thousands.  Skeptical  though  we  be, 
there  are  mute,  inglorious  Miltons;  there  are 
gems  of  purest  ray  serene  in  the  dark  un- 
fathom'd  caves  of  ocean ;  there  are  great  men 
tal,  artistic,  spiritual,  religious  forces  that  lie 
dormant,  undeveloped,  dead,  in  many  souls 
that  need  but  self -consciousness  to  set  them 
free,  and  but  a  little  encouragement  to  send 
them  vibrant  and  operative  into  the  world. 

The  great  teachers  of  the  race  realize  this 
fact,  and  that  is  why  they  are  the  great  teach 
ers.  They  look  upon  common  men  and  women 
as  divine  possibilities  that  lie  sleeping,  as  yet 
unawakened;  and  they  do  not  for  a  moment 
dream  that  they  put  anything  into  humanity — 
these  great  teachers — they  simply  lead  out  what 
is  already  within  them.  So  Garfield  was  able 
to  say  that  Mark  Hopkins  at  one  end  of  a  log 
and  a  student  at  the  other,  constituted  a  uni 
versity.  That  great  genius,  Mark  Hopkins, 
never  put  any  power  into  a  student's  head  or 
heart — he  simply  developed  what  was  already 
lying  sleeping  within;  he  so  poured  his  own 
soul  into  the  task,  with  a  great  joy  he  so  threw 


FALLOW-LAND  31 

himself  into  the  purpose,  that  the  student  could 
not  but  respond.  The  young  lad's  own  inner 
nature  was  drawn  out  of  him — "  educated,"  as 
we  say,  in  the  strict  etymological  sense  of  the 
word. 

One  of  the  greatest  modern  teachers  in 
America  was  the  late  Dr.  William  R.  Harper. 
At  Yale,  twenty  years  ago,  you  could  have 
heard  the  echoes  of  his  teaching  amongst  the 
students  who  were  still  in  the  institution.  They 
said  that  that  great,  strong,  powerful,  enthu 
siastic  spirit  would  lift  men  up  out  of  them 
selves,  and  in  spite  of  themselves,  though  he 
had  the  driest  subject  that  any  man  was  ever 
called  upon  to  teach  to  a  company  of  his  fel 
lows — the  Hebrew  language.  He  would  put 
upon  the  board  a  few  of  those  ugly,  scrawly 
characters,  and  then  he  would  point  to  them, 
and  say,  "  Look  at  those,  gentlemen !  Aren't 
they  beautiful !  Aren't  they  beautiful !  "  They 
would  lean  over  in  their  seats,  and  they  would 
work  for  him  four  hours  out  of  the  twenty- 
four,  until  all  the  other  professors  in  the  in 
stitution  were  jealous  of  the  amount  of  time 
that  Harper  took.  And  he  did  not  give  those 
men  anything — he  simply  educated  those  men 
— drew  out  of  them  the  latent  capacities  and 
powers  that  were  already  in  the  humblest  and 
slowest  of  them. 


32  FALLOW-LAND 

Thus  also  Jesus  of  Nazareth,  the  greatest 
teacher  of  them  all,  recognizing  the  latent  ca 
pacities  in  men,  had  only  to  come  into  their 
presence,  and  with  His  great  throbbing,  mag 
netic  soul,  touch  them  at  a  remote  corner  or 
boundary  line,  and  He  could  quicken  them  into 
new  life;  they  responded  to  Him,  in  spite  of 
themselves;  and  what  lay  dormant  and  unex 
plored  within  them  was  immediately  opened  up 
to  the  light. 

He  comes  into  the  home  of  Zaccheus,  and 
His  mere  presence  is  stimulating  enough  for 
that  hard,  cold,  practical,  greedy  man  of  the 
world  to  cry  out,  "  Master,  from  this  time 
forth  I  give  half  my  goods  to  feed  the  poor; 
and  if  I  have  wrongfully  exacted  of  any  man, 
I  will  restore  him  fourfold ! " 

He  has  only  to  come  into  contact  with  the 
woman  of  Samaria,  and  speak  with  her  for  a 
short  time,  until  she  runs  enthusiastically  into 
the  city  and  calls  all  her  friends,  and  says : 
".Come,  see  a  man  that  told  me  all  things  that 
ever  I  did !  Is  not  this  the  Christ  ?  " 

He  has  only  to  hold  a  few  moments'  conver 
sation  with  the  polished,  refined  Pharisee,  and 
he  instills  into  Nicodemus  a  desire  to  be  born 
again,  made  over,  the  lower  vast  riches  of  his 
unexplored  nature  expanded  and  brought  out 
to  the  light. 


FALLOW-LAND  33 

The  military  geniuses,  the  great  command 
ers,  statesmen,  and  politicians  are  those  who, 
somehow,  by  a  subtle  magic  of  personality,  are 
able  to  draw  men  out  of  themselves  to  use, 
action,  toil,  and  sacrifice.  The  Napoleons  for 
whom  men  die  with  cheers  and  songs  are  not 
those  who  put  anything  into  men  they  do  not 
already  possess,  but  call  out  of  men  in  tangible 
response  what  those  men  already  have  within. 
Mark  Twain,  with  a  consummate  knowledge  of 
the  human  heart,  makes  the  standard-bearer  of 
Joan  of  Arc  a  great  hulking  overgrown,  lub 
berly  peasant,  cowardly  to  a  degree,  afraid  of 
the  mere  clash  of  steel  on  steel.  But  when  Joan 
is  near,  that  pigeon-livered  peasant  becomes  a 
charging  lion.  He  will  follow  her  anywhere, 
everywhere. 

The  Lord's  voice  came  to  Gideon — poor  little 
weak  and  cowardly  Gideon,  threshing  out  a 
handful  of  wheat  behind  the  winepress  to  hide 
it  from  the  Midianites — the  Lord's  voice  came, 
saying,  "  Come  forth,  Gideon,  thou  mighty  man 
of  valor." 

"  There's  some  mistake  here,"  said  Gideon. 
"  You  can't  mean  me,  Lord.  I  am  the  least  of 
my  house.  My  house  is  the  least  of  my  tribe. 
My  tribe  is  the  least  of  the  nation.  Send  by 
some  strong  man's  hand.  Case  of  mistaken 
identity." 


34.  FALLOW-LAND 

The  Lord's  voice  said,  "  Come  forth,  Gideon, 
thou  mighty  man  of  valor." 

And  forth  came  the  little  craven  to  the  con 
quest  of  his  country's  tyrants.  It  is  a  good 
name  for  a  band  of  American  travelling  men — 
"  The  Gideons." 

No  man  knows  what  a  hero  he  is  until  he  is 
called  forth  and  tried;  and  it  is  to  the  high, 
heroic  call  that  the  common  man  responds 
when  he  will  not  respond  to  a  less  noble  note. 
Witness  the  response  of  all  the  men  of  Eu 
rope  to  what  they  feel  is  the  call  of  Country. 
When  the  call  of  self-interest  in  Socialism 
failed  to  hold  men ;  when  the  call  of  the  Church 
to  personal,  individual  salvation  failed  to  reach 
men ;  when  Socialism  and  the  Church  both  had 
crumbled  and  fallen,  there  came  the  high  call  to 
self-sacrifice,  the  call  not  to  shorter  hours  and 
easier  tasks,  not  to  pearl  gates  and  gold 
streets,  but  the  call  to  the  muddy  trench,  the 
long  march,  the  blackened  face  and  bleeding 
hands  and  feet,  aye,  and  the  call  to  death — 
and  men  answered  to  the  high  call,  "  Here !  " 

The  great  statesmen,  moreover,  have  been 
those  who  believed  in  the  power  and  capacity 
of  common  people  and  have  dared  to  trust  it. 
Washington  and  Lincoln  are  outstanding 
names  in  our  history  and  are  revered  around 
the  world  because,  with  their  ears  to  the 


FALLOW-LAND  35 

ground,  they  heard  the  heartbeat  of  the  great 
common  people,  responded  to  it,  vocalized  it, 
put  it  into  action  and  into  statute;  because 
they  believed  in  the  power  and  the  capacity 
of  the  ordinary  common  man. 

Now,  the  greatest  desire,  no  doubt,  of  al 
most  all  men,  is  the  fullest  personal  develop 
ment,  the  utilization  of  all  the  force  and  ail 
the  capacity  that  they  possess.  The  first  ques 
tion  of  the  catechism  reads,  "  What  is  the  chief 
end  of  man?"  The  answer  is,  "To  glorify 
God  and  enjoy  Him  forever."  We  cannot  in 
terpret  that  answer  to  mean  that  the  chief  end 
of  man  is  to  tell  God  how  great  He  is,  though 
that  is  worth  while ;  to  sing  praises  constantly 
to  His  name,  though  that  also  is  worth  while; 
but  we  must  feel  that  this  phrase,  "  To  glorify 
God,"  means  what  Jesus  meant  when  He  said, 
"  Herein  is  my  Father  glorified,  that  ye  bear 
much  fruit,  so  shall  ye  be  my  disciples."  The 
way  in  which  we  can  best  praise  God  and 
glorify  Him  best,  is  to  bear  most  fruit,  and  so 
be  the  disciples  of  the  Christ.  In  other  words, 
it  is  our  glory,  and  it  is  our  best  means  of 
glorifying  God,  to  develop  all  the  powers  and 
capacities  that  we  possess  until  they  become 
valuable  and  working  in  the  world ;  to  see  that 
all  the  sap  that  is  in  one's  nature  comes  out 
ward  into  bud  and  blossom  and  fruit ;  to  make 


36  FALLOW-LAND 

the  most  of  one's  self,  and  the  finest  of  one's 
self;  and,  changing  the  figure,  to  polish  and  re 
fine  one's  own  personality,  until  it  shines  with 
all  the  glory  that  it  was  intended  to  shine  with, 
when  it  was  made  to  reflect  the  glory  of  the 
Lord,  from  glory  unto  glory. 

Out  in  the  Rocky  Mountains  there  is  a  little 
lake  the  surface  of  which  is  scarcely  ever 
fanned  by  passing  breezes,  so  is  it  sheltered  by 
crag  and  cliff  and  mountain  top.  Still  as  glass, 
it  mirrors  back  the  overhanging  pine  and 
hemlock,  and  the  yellow  and  green  and  blue 
of  the  sandstone  rocks.  It  seems  a  very  shal 
low  little  lake — you  can  see  the  bottom  of  it 
at  any  place,  you  think,  in  the  clear,  crystal 
depths.  You  think  you  can  reach  down  and 
pick  up  pebbles  all  over  the  basin  that  holds 
that  water;  but  to  the  bottom  of  that  little  lake 
plummet  line  never  yet  has  gone !  Is  that  not  a 
picture  of  the  human  soul?  So  deep  and  so 
profound  that  nobody  ever  yet  has  stirred  its 
depths ! 

"  But,"  says  the  man  in  the  street,  "  that  is 
not  a  picture  of  my  soul.  I  am  shallow,  as  that 
lake  appeared  to  be.  You  can  pick  up  the 
stones  over  the  depths  of  my  nature  anywhere. 
I  am  not  naturally  religious,  and  I  am  not  deep 
and  profound.  I  am  very  ordinary  and  very 
shallow."  That  is  the  only  heresy  in  life. 


FALLOW-LAND  37 

Not  to  believe  in  one's  self,  one's  kinship  to 
God,  and  one's  inherent  and  yet  unfolded  and 
undeveloped  capacities, — that  is  not  to  believe 
in  God  who  made  us. 

"  Well,  if  there  are  capacities  and  powers 
in  me  yet  unsounded  and  undeveloped,  I  should 
like  to  know  how  to  reach  them — how  to  un 
fold  them — how  to  expand  them." 

Life  does  this  for  us.  There  are  two  means 
at  least  by  which  we  may  develop  the  un 
sounded  depths  of  our  natures,  or  two  kinds 
of  means.  These  are  voluntary  and  involun 
tary.  Whether  we  will  or  no,  the  inevitable 
experiences  of  life  deepen  and  enrich  the  soil 
of  our  souls.  To  go  up  against  life,  which  for 
no  one  is  smooth  and  even  and  easy,  against 
the  hardnesses  and  obstinacies  of  life,  the  diffi 
culties,  the  perplexities,  the  trials  and  the  suf 
ferings  of  life,  is  to  expand  our  capacities,  to 
toughen  our  sinews,  to  develop  our  souls! 

And  here  we  have  at  least  a  glimpse  into  the 
purposes  of  the  Creator  in  putting  so  much  of 
hardness  and  of  suffering  into  the  world.  We 
cannot  see  His  ultimate  purpose,  but  we  can  at 
least  see  the  immediate  result.  Hardness 
creates  men  and  women.  It  makes  them  bet 
ter,  stronger,  more  heroic,  than  they  ever  could 
be  without  it.  Once,  when  I  was  lying  upon  a 
bed  of  intense  pain,  a  friend  of  mine  came, 


38  FALLOW-LAND 

and  standing  by  my  side,  took  my  hand  and 
said,  "  Sometimes  we  do  not  look  up  until  we 
are  flat  on  our  backs !  "  I  never  have  forgotten 
that  word.  I  never  could  forget  it.  Some 
times  God  has  to  send  the  iron  down,  down, 
down,  deep  into  our  souls  before  the  strata  are 
pierced  where  the  living  waters  are. 

It  is  in  the  exquisite  agonies  of  life  that  oft- 
times  we  slough  off  the  mortal,  material  exist 
ence  and  look  up  into  the  sky,  into  the  face  of 
God,  even  as  He  scourges  us,  and  cry  out, 
"  Though  He  slay  me,  yet  will  I  trust  Him !  " 
It  is  a  brave  word  of  Browning's : 

"  Then  welcome  each  rebuff  that  turns  earth's  smooth 
ness  rough ; 

That  bids  nor  sit  nor  stand,  but  Go ! 
Be  our  joys  three  parts  pain,  strive,  and  hold  cheap 

the  strain; 

Learn,  nor  account  the  pang!    Dare,  never  grudge 
the  throe!" 

Sometimes  over  the  sodded  mound,  and 
under  the  weeping  willow,  under  the  suffering 
and  the  loss  against  which  one's  soul  rebels,  and 
yet  which  is  inevitable  and  irreparable,  the 
soil  of  our  hearts  is  mellowed,  deepened,  soft 
ened.  The  rain  of  tribulation  fructifies  the  fig 
tree  that  otherwise  might  be  cursed! 

And  then,  sometimes,  on  the  other  hand,  in 
the  greatest  joys,  men's  inherent  latent  powers 


FALLOW-LAND  39 

are  called  into  play.  Phillips  Brooks  is  right,  is 
he  not,  when  he  says  that  in  our  highest  mo 
ments,  whether  of  sorrow  or  of  joy,  we  natu 
rally  and  inevitably  call  upon  our  God.  In 
moments  of  stress  and  grief,  we  cry  out  in 
voluntarily,  "  God  help  me !  "  In  moments 
of  relief,  we  cry,  "Thank  God!"  Perfectly 
natural  is  it  that  our  souls  should  come  up  to 
Him  in  times  of  greatest  exaltation.  We  have 
seen  men  humbled  by  great  good  fortune,  men 
made  hungry  and  thirsty  for  righteousness, 
through  prosperity.  To  be  sure,  that  is  rare. 
For  the  most  part  prosperity  hardens  a  man,  or 
a  nation — adversity  softens  and  refines.  But 
there  are  those  who  have  found  in  their  very 
good  fortune,  and  their  joy,  the  presence  of 
God,  and  the  feeling  and  the  sense  of  God. 

Once  again,  involuntarily,  the  latent  heroism 
and  capacity  of  man  is  oftentimes  brought 
out  by  his  very  sinfulness.  We  shall  have 
to  tread  carefully  here,  but  it  is  undoubtedly 
true  that  many  a  man  has  been  brought  nearer 
to  God  by  his  sins,  by  his  failures,  by  his 
attempts  to  realize  the  absurd — for,  after  all, 
that  is  what  sin  is — by  his  desire  to  do  the 
thing  that,  in  the  nature  of  things,  cannot  be 
done ;  by  his  striving  to  get  satisfaction  through 
that  which,  in  the  nature  of  things,  cannot  and 
does  not  satisfy.  You  have  seen  a  man  galvan- 


40  FALLOW-LAND 

ized  broad  awake  by  the  shock  of  the  thing 
he  has  done,  and  reclaimed,  made  over,  liber 
ated,  set  free  even  through  his  own  slavery. 

"  The  bird  with  a  broken  pinion  never  soars 
so  high  again,"  was  the  old  evangelistic  song 
that  we  used  to  sing.  If  that  were  true,  where 
would  be  our  John  B.  Coughs  ?  Where  would 
be  our  General  Booths?  Where  would  be  our 
Dwight  L.  Moodys?  Where  would  be  our  St. 
Augustines?  OurDantes?  Birds  with  broken 
pinions,  every  one  of  them.  There  is  hope  for 
any  man,  no  matter  what  he  has  done,  or  how 
he  has  fallen;  and  he  can  fly  just  as  high! 
Now,  that  is  not  saying  that  it  is  a  good  thing 
to  sow  wild  oats.  That  is  not  saying,  "  Let  us 
do  sin,  that  grace  may  abound."  God  forbid! 
But  it  is  saying  that  sin,  itself,  sometimes  elec 
trifies  a  man  awake,  and  brings  him  to  him 
self. 

Jesus  would  not  have  put  it  into  His  parable 
if  it  had  not  been  true.  The  lost  son,  the 
prodigal,  says  Jesus,  so  significantly,  "  when  he 
came  to  himself,  said,  I  will  arise,  and  go  unto 
my  father."  "  When  he  came  to  himself !  " 
His  best  self.  His  real  self.  His  profoundest 
self.  His  undeveloped  self.  When,  at  last,  he 
called  upon  all  that  was  within  him,  then  he 
said,  "  I  will  arise  and  go  home  to  my  father." 
The  implication  of  the  Master  is  here  very 


FALLOW-LAND  41 

plain — that  a  man's  real  self  is  his  better  self. 
When,  therefore,  he  is  not  at  his  best,  he  is 
not  himself.  He  is,  as  we  say,  beside  himself, 
as  if  a  blow  on  the  head,  or  strong  liquor,  or 
drugs,  had  made  him  temporarily  some  one 
else;  as  if  his  real  inner  self  had  been  taken 
out  of  him,  out  of  his  mouth  or  the  top  of  his 
head, — even  as  many  people  imagine  the  soul 
at  death  comes  out  of  the  body, — and  the  inner 
self  stood  beside  the  outer,  or  apparent  self. 
Then,  later,  in  our  colloquial  language  we  say, 
he  "  comes  to."  That  is,  he  comes  to  con 
sciousness,  comes  to  himself.  So  the  lost  son 
came  to  himself,  and  said,  "  I  will  go  to  my 
father."  In  the  same  fashion,  when  the  man 
in  the  street  "  comes  to,"  comes  to  himself,  is 
"  at  himself,"  he  arises  also  and  says,  "  I  will 
go  to  my  Father." 

But  there  are  certain  things  that  voluntarily 
we  may  do,  and  experiences  that  we  may 
undergo,  which  will  develop,  refine,  unfold  us, 
increase  the  fruitage  of  the  trees  of  our  lives. 
First,  our  association,  our  comradeships,  the 
character  of  the  people  with  whom  we  have  to 
do.  Is  there  anybody  in  your  acquaintance 
who,  by  his  very  presence,  brings  out  the  best 
that  is  within  you?  Anybody  before  whom 
you  want  to  be  at  your  best?  Anybody  with 
whom,  in  spite  of  yourself,  you  are  at  your 


42  FALLOW-LAND 

best;  whose  personality  quickens  mind,  heart 
will;  tunes,  intensifies?  If  there  is  such,  lock 
him  to  your  bosom  with  bands  of  steel.  Never 
let  him  go.  Follow  him  about,  day  in,  day  out. 
Take  up  your  boarding-house  across  the  street 
from  him.  Never  let  him  out  of  your  sight  if 
you  can  help  it.  Make  him  your  own. 

"  But,"  says  one,  "  I  have  no  such  friend. 
The  nature  of  my  environment  is  such,  or  the 
natural  reserve  of  my  own  character  is  such, 
that  I  have  no  such  friend.  I  cannot  find  him, 
and  if  I  found  him  I  could  not  make  use  of 
him." 

Ruskin  tells  us  that  there  are  certain  kings 
and  princes  waiting  to  associate  with  us,  all 
the  time,  if  we  care  to  come  into  their  com 
pany.  They  are  gathering  dust  upon  our 
shelves,  and  yet  are  ready  to  give  us  the  best 
and  the  finest  that  is  in  their  nature — not  the 
ordinary  table-talk,  or  made-conversation  of 
the  day — kings  and  princes  of  the  soul,  waiting 
to  speak  to  us !  Seek  them  out,  and  avoid  the 
lesser  lights.  Above  all,  there  is  the  King  of 
Kings,  the  Lord  of  Lords,  the  Prince  of 
Princes,  the  chief est  among  ten  thousand,  the 
One  altogether  lovely,  who  is  ready  to  be  a 
friend  to  every  friendless  man  or  any  man. 
That  same  great  Teacher  and  leader  of  men 
that  could  understand  the  secrets  of  men's 


FALLOW-LAND  43 

hearts,  and  draw  them  out  to  their  best  self- 
expression — He  is  ready  to  stand  beside  every 
one  of  us,  to  take  each  one  of  us  by  the  hand, 
and  talk  to  us  even  as  He  talked  to  those  two 
on  the  way  to  Emmaus,  whose  hearts  burned 
within  them  by  the  way. 

"  But,"  objects  the  common  man,  "  that  is 
mystical,  unreal.  Jesus  died  two  thousand 
years  ago.  I  don't  see  how  I  can  make  a 
friend  and  a  companion  of  Him."  Jesus  Christ 
is  alive  in  the  world  today,  more  really  than 
He  was  two  thousand  years  ago!  Do  we  not 
know  that  a  man  can  live  long,  long  after  his 
apparent  death  ?  Is  not  Washington  alive,  and 
William  of  Orange,  and  Garibaldi,  and  Oliver 
Cromwell,  and  a  host  of  other  great  souls? 
Is  not,  then,  the  Son  of  Man  and  Son  of  God 
alive,  increasingly  alive,  almightily  alive  in  the 
world  today?  There  never  was  nor  is  any 
body  quite  so  much  in  evidence  as  He !  He  is 
here,  ready  to  associate  with  all  sorts  and  con 
ditions  of  men,  to  be  a  friend,  to  be  a  comrade, 
to  be  a  saviour,  to  be  a  redeemer,  to  anybody 
that  will  meet  Him  half-the-way.  That  com 
panionship  is  open  to  all !  If  we  do  not  feel  and 
see  His  presence  in  our  world,  our  civilization, 
our  ethics,  our  art,  our  literature,  our  common 
est  thoughts  and  aspirations,  we  are  blind  in 
deed  !  Social  life  and  business  life  all  take  their 


44  FALLOW-LAND 

finest  ideals  and  best  attitudes  from  Him.  He 
is  not  dead.  He  is  alive. 

Meditation  upon  Him  that  this  busy  age 
seems  to  have  lost,  the  moments  before  the 
fire,  in  the  deep  silence  of  the  woods  or  the 
fields,  the  moments  when  we  withdraw  from 
the  touch  of  humanity  and  turn  our  eyes  up 
ward,  consciously  and  voluntarily,  to  God — 
meditation  which  Ian  Maclaren  calls  one  of  the 
lost  arts — will  deepen  the  soil  of  our  souls.  Be 
alone.  You  have  the  right  to  be  alone.  The 
world  has  no  license  to  invade  your  privacy 
twenty-four  hours  out  of  the  day.  Be  alone, 
and  think  upon  God. 

Then  pray.  Our  age  needs,  as  no  other  age 
has  ever  needed,  to  follow  the  example  of  the 
bewildered,  hesitating,  half -crazed  Hamlet, 
when  he  said,  "  As  for  me,  look  you,  I'll  go 
pray."  You  see,  here  are  the  old,  old  exercises 
that  humanity  has  found  necessary  to  the  ex 
pansion  and  development  and  the  training  of 
its  powers.  Prayer  to  God — unceasing  prayer 
to  God.  Consciousness  of  His  presence — not 
petitions  to  Him,  but  association  with  Him, 
talks  with  Him,  on  the  streets,  in  the  shops,  in 
the  stores,  in  the  home,  in  the  busy  social 
circle, — that  is  what  we  need.  Everywhere 
conscious  of  and  talking  to  God,  we  shall 
deepen  the  soil  of  our  souls.  One  of  the  sages 


FALLOW-LAND  45 

and  saints  of  our  Middle  West  used  often  to 
say,  "  I  sit  here  under  the  trees,  on  the  grass, 
and  talk  to  God ;  while  He  talks  to  me !  "  He 
seldom  said  "  I  pray,"  but  we  knew,  as  every 
body  who  really  was  acquainted  with  him 
knew,  that  it  was  so;  that  is  real  prayer. 

"  That  I  might  develop  all  that  is  within  me ! 
That  I  might  realize  the  end  of  man,  to  glorify 
God,  and  enjoy  Him  forever!  That  the  un 
explored,  unclaimed,  arid  lands  of  my  soul 
might  be  conserved  and  utilized,  and  given  back 
to  Him  who  made  them !  " 

There  is  the  instinctive  thirst  of  humanity. 
And  it  is  the  thirst  that  can  be  adequately 
quenched  in  Christ,  and  Christ  alone.  Ho, 
every  man  in  the  street  and  on  the  road,  come 
ye  to  the  waters  and  drink! 


Ill 

SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

EVERY  man  must  have  his  Messiah.  In 
some  form  or  other,  at  some  time  or 
other,  every  man  in  the  cities  of  the 
world,  in  streets  narrow  and  dark  like  the 
byways  of  Damascus  or  Algiers,  on  broad 
boulevards  like  those  of  Paris  or  Chicago, 
every  man  on  the  plains,  pampas,  or 
steppes,  every  man  in  the  mines,  factories,  or 
fields,  every  white  man,  black  man,  or  brown 
man,  must  have  his  Christ  of  God,  a  power  not 
himself  to  help  him.  He  looks  for  some  one  to 
come  to  him.  In  the  nature  of  things  he  feels 
he  has  the  right  to  look  for  such  a  one.  The 
universe,  blind  and  grinding  though  it  be,  owes 
him  a  Messiah. 

Now  he  thinks  his  Messiah  is  come,  and  now 
he  looks  for  another.  Now  he  welcomes  the 
coming  one  in  a  Buddha  or  a  Mohammed  and 
rests  his  soul  upon  the  stalwart  shoulder;  and 
now  his  faith  is  shaken,  his  Messiah  fails  as 
Buddha  is  failing  in  Japan  today,  and  the  man 
in  the  street  cries  out  for  some  one  else  to 
46 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  47 

come  or  he  dies,  ere  he  dies.  Now  it  is  the 
Christian  who  declares  that  Messiah  has  ar 
rived  ;  now  it  is  the  Jew  who  insists  that  Mes 
siah  is  yet  to  come.  But  for  every  soul  of  us 
He  is  either  here  or  coming. 

No  man  can  live  his  life  alone,  nor  die  his 
death  alone.  It  is  not  good  that  man  should 
live  alone.  Strong,  stalwart  souls  there  are 
who,  in  the  pride  of  their  independence,  insist 
that  they  will  stand  alone. 

"  It  matters  not  how  strait  the  gate, 

How  charged  with  punishments  the  scroll; 
I  am  the  master  of  my  fate, 
I  am  the  captain  of  my  soul !  " 

That  is  the  strain  in  which  they  venture  to 
front  life,  its  storms,  its  pains,  its  deaths.  But 
stoicism  has  been  tried  and  abandoned  by  the 
human  race.  There  is  no  sense  among  men 
more  universal  than  the  sense  of  dependence. 
We  need  a  Father.  We  need  each  other.  We 
need  Messiah. 

Man  is  a  gregarious  animal,  and  needs  his 
fellow-man.  Few  men  can  keep  their  sanity  in 
solitary  confinement.  Sheep  herders,  on  our 
Western  plains,  weeks  and  months  alone,  to 
use  the  language  of  the  West,  often  "  go  loco  " 
— that  is,  lose  their  mental  balance  and  even 
become  insane.  Men  must  reach  out  beyond 


48  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

themselves  and  touch  others,  or  they  die  of 
loneliness  and  fear. 

The  simple-hearted,  kindly  natured  negro 
most  clearly  shows  this  trait.  Negroes  congre 
gate  in  their  settlements  like  bees  about  a  hive. 
They  sit  up  to  the  small  hours  only  to  talk  and 
be  together,  though  they  know  they  must  arise 
at  daylight  and  doze  over  their  tasks  next  day. 
I  once  heard  a  negro  preacher  by  the  baptismal 
pond,  at  Lexington,  Kentucky,  close  a  prayer — 
for  he  was  considered  "  very  powerful  in 
prayer  " — with  these  eloquent  and  profound, 
though  simple  words :  "  At  las',  O  Lord,  when 
Thou,  hast  served  Thy  righteous  purposes  with 
us  here  on  dis  earth,  take  us  home  to  dat  land 
where  it  is  all  Howdy,  and  no  Good 
bye  ! "  Give  it  a  rising  inflection,  that  last 
word. 

Nor  is  it  the  simple-minded  alone,  but  also 
the  more  sophisticated,  who  lean  upon  one  an 
other.  Business  is  built  upon  association  and 
trust.  Men  consult  each  other,  stand  together, 
or  they  fall.  No  man  lives  his  business  life 
alone,  or  carries  his  business  responsibilities  by 
himself. 

Many  years  ago  in  a  frontier  town  of  the 
West,  now  become  a  great  city,  lived  a  hardy 
pioneer  who  was  commonly  called  "  Laughing 
Andy."  Yet  I  never  heard  him  laugh  aloud.  No 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  49 

doubt  his  sobriquet  was  due  to  the  smile  he  al 
ways  wore, — not  one  of  these  political  smiles, 
these  made-to-order  smiles,  these  superficial 
smiles,  but  the  smile  that  is  still  to  be  seen  on 
the  portrait  in  his  son's  home,  the  smile  that 
would  not  come  off  even  as  he  lay  in  his  coffin. 
He  was  tall  and  gaunt  and  stoop-shouldered, 
like  Lincoln  and  the  race  of  the  blazed  trails. 
He  wore  a  full,  reddish-gray  beard  in  his  later 
years,  and  the  birds  would  come  fearlessly  and, 
alighting  on  his  shoulder,  pluck  out  a  hair  or 
two  with  which  to  line  their  nests — a  rather 
painful  process  to  him,  that  must  have  been,  but 
he  would  only  stand  and  smile.  Squirrels 
would  eat  from  his  hand;  little  furry  things 
were  not  afraid  of  him;  horses  and  cattle  fol 
lowed  him  about.  There  are  men  like  that, 
now  and  then. 

This  "  Laughing  Andy  " — men  would  come 
to  him  to  settle  their  business  disputes.  Bitter 
enemies  they  would  enter  his  store.  They 
would  find  him  lying  full  length  on  his  counter ; 
for  he  had  an  aphorism  like  this :  "  Never  stand 
up  when  you  can  sit  down;  never  sit  up  when 
you  can  lie  down."  Lazy?  No,  not  an  ounce 
of  laziness  in  his  six-foot-one,  two  hundred 
and  ten  pounds  of  lean  body.  He  would  lie 
there,  and  let  them  tell  their  tale  of  woe  and 
bitterness  and  hate ;  then  he  would  look  at  them 


50  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

out  of  his  big  gray  eyes,  be  reminded  Lincoln- 
like  of  an  anecdote,  talk  for  an  hour,  maybe, — 
for  he  never  hurried, — over  old  times  and  far 
away  places;  and  then  when  spring  had  come 
and  the  ice  grown  mushy,  he  would  gently  push 
his  boat  out  into  the  midstream  of  their  affairs, 
compose  their  differences,  adjust  their  claims, 
cheat  the  courts  out  of  a  case,  shake  hands  with 
both,  and  permit  each  to  shake  hands  with  the 
other  in  his  presence,  and  laugh  kindly  at  them 
as  they  went  their  way,  wiser,  but  no  sadder 
men.  He  worked  no  miracles;  he  hypnotized 
nobody ;  he  simply  served  as  some  one  to  come, 
in  an  hour  of  need,  to  his  friends  in  the  street. 
Every  man  sees  the  day  when  some  one  from 
outside  must  put  a  hand  into  his  affairs.  They 
are  too  much  for  him  alone.  Dependence  is  a 
trait  of  the  strongest. 

There  was  a  strong  soul  once  imprisoned. 
He  was  a  man  who  had  come  from  God,  and 
his  name  was  John.  He  came  baptizing  folk 
in  a  river ;  his  home  was  the  desert ;  his  cloth 
ing,  haircloth ;  his  food,  locusts  and  wild  honey. 
He  had  dared  to  beard  a  king,  and  defy  the  il 
legal  consort  of  a  king.  Now  he  was  deserted 
by  the  multitude  and  even  by  most  of  his  close 
friends.  He  languished  alone  in  Herod's  sad 
dungeon  of  Machserus.  Then,  to  assuage  the 
doubts  and  yearnings  of  his  soul,  he  sent  two 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  51 

of  his  followers  who  yet  remained  beside  him 
to  ask  of  Jesus,  "  Art  Thou  He  that  should 
come,  or  do  we  look  for  another  ?  " 

To  him  there  was  no  other  possibility.  One 
of  the  two  alternatives  must  be  true.  Either 
Jesus  was  the  one  to  come,  or  else  another  must 
come.  He  was  in  the  case  of  the  Japanese  and 
many  another  who  have  lost  faith  in  their  tradi 
tional  Messiah.  If  Buddha  is  not  the  one,  if 
Confucius  is  not  the  one,  if  Jesus  is  not  the 
one,  then  we  must  look  for  another.  How  is 
it  that  John  has  lost  his  faith?  He  is  im 
prisoned,  deserted,  alone, — he  that  once  saw  so 
clearly.  He,  at  the  setting  of  the  sun  one  day, 
had  pointed  the  finger  of  certitude  at  Jesus, 
saying,  "  Behold  the  Lamb  of  God,  that  taketh 
away  the  sin  of  the  world !  "  His  own  sun 
was  near  the  setting.  Soon  the  old  eagle  was 
to  be  caged;  he  was  to  beat  his  wings  help 
lessly  against  the  bars  of  fate  and  circum 
stance  ;  the  film  was  to  grow  over  his  eyes ;  and 
he  was  to  cry  aloud  in  his  anguish :  "  Is  it  really 
He  that  should  come  ?  Was  I  mistaken  ?  Must 
we  take  refuge  again  in  the  hope  deferred  that 
maketh  the  heart  sick?  Is  there  some  one 
else  for  whom  we  must  wait  ?  " 

Take  away  a  man's  Messiah,  false  or  true, 
and  he  must  look,  wait,  hope;  some  one  must 
come.  This  is  as  true  of  a  Japanese  as  of  a 


52  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

Jew,  of  a  modern  as  of  an  ancient,  of  a  white 
man  as  of  a  brown  or  yellow  one.  No  matter 
what  the  outside,  what  the  environment,  what 
the  age,  the  average  man  is  the  same  the  world 
over.  Under  the  turban  and  the  robe,  under 
the  Scotch  cheviot  and  black  evening  suit,  beat 
the  same  hearts,  work  the  same  brain-convolu 
tions,  well  up  the  same  yearnings  and  longings, 
desires,  hopes,  and  fears.  If  our  Messiah  be 
not  risen,  we  Christian  men  must  look  for  an 
other.  There  is  no  getting  along  in  this  chaos 
without  one.  There  is,  there  must  be,  then, 
some  one  to  come. 

Let  us  look  first  at  the  conditions  in  Israel. 
The  important  thing  about  this  question  of 
John's  is  that  it  shows  us  so  clearly  the  atti 
tude  of  the  Baptist,  the  spokesman  of  the 
Hebrew  people.  The  whole  of  that  nation  had 
long  been  looking  for  some  one  to  come,  and 
now  if  this  was  not  he,  then  they  must  con 
tinue  to  look.  If  the  prophets  had  never  writ 
ten  a  word  about  the  Messiah;  if  Isaiah  and 
his  wonderful  fifty-third  chapter  had  never 
come  as  a  message  to  the  downtrodden  and 
broken  and  dissevered  people  of  Israel,  they 
would  still  have  looked  for  some  one  to  come. 
Every  nation  does  in  its  moments  of  distress; 
and  all  through  the  thought  of  Israel,  like  a 
golden  and  scarlet  thread  woven  into  some  dull 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  53 

fabric,  was  the  expectation  of  this  coming  one 
to  restore  the  pristine  glories  of  David  and 
Solomon. 

No  doubt,  at  this  very  time  when  John  came 
preaching  in  the  wilderness  and  when  later  he 
was  put  behind  Herod's  prison  bars,  the  fisher 
men  of  the  Lake  of  Galilee,  and  the  peasantry 
all  about  that  beautiful  inland  sea,  were  bound 
together  in  secret  compact,  with  arms  stored, 
with  preparations  made  against  that  day  .when 
some  one  should  come ;  and  who  knows  but 
that  the  favored  leader  of  this  peasant  soldiery 
was  he  who  afterwards  became  the  rock  apostle 
of  the  twelve,  Simon  Peter?  No  doubt  the 
shepherds  of  the  Judean  plains  were  in  like 
fashion  sworn  under  a  great  oath  with  muni 
tions  prepared,  waiting  with  eyes  to  the  east 
for  the  dawn  to  arise  when  some  one  should 
come  and  grasp  the  sword  and  lead  them 
against  their  hereditary  foes.  And  who  knows 
but  that  the  emblem  which  formed  their  stand 
ard  was  the  Star  of  Bethlehem  that  their 
fathers  had  seen  in  the  east?  No  doubt  the 
young  sons  of  the  princely  houses  of  Jerusalem, 
in  the  same  way,  were  banded  together  in 
secret  understanding,  while  in  the  basements  of 
the  palaces  on  Zion  and  Moriah  were  the 
swords  and  the  spears  and  the  armor  for  the 
coming  day.  And  who  knows  but  that  some 


54  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

young  John  Mark  was  the  chosen  leader  of 
those  aristocratic  regiments? 

Fanciful,  all  this,  you  say, — imaginative  ?  If 
you  will  turn  to  the  books  that  were  bound  into 
your  father's  and  your  mother's  Bible,  that  are 
not  bound  in  our  Bibles  of  today,  you  will 
find  clearly  pictured  all  of  these  combinations 
that  I  have  been  trying  to  rehearse.  The 
Apocryphal  and  the  Apocalyptic  literature,  dat 
ing  from  the  century  or  so  just  preceding  the 
coming  of  Christ,  is  shot  through  with  this  ex 
pectation,  with  this  preparation,  with  this  firm 
underlying  faith  of  this  broken  and  bleeding 
and  yearniqg  people  of  the  hills  that  some  one 
should  come  and  save  them  and  restore  them. 
Furthermore,  the  people  in  the  narratives  of 
the  Gospel  show  clearly  in  their  conversations 
with  Jesus  and  His  followers  this  expectation. 
Some  one  must  come. 

It  is  just  as  natural  as  the  rising  of  the  sun 
after  darkness,  that  people  in  moments  of  their 
depression  should  look  for  a  deliverer,  a  con 
queror,  to  come  and  lead  them  out  into  the 
light.  Rome,  in  her  decadence,  when  her 
hitherto  invincible  legions  were  beaten  and 
broken,  when  her  boundaries  were  steadily 
pushed  in ;  and  when,  especially  from  the  north, 
Goth  and  Hun  and  Vandal  were  bearing  down 
upon  the  Eternal  City  itself, — Rome  said, 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  55 

"Just  wait;  Nero  will  come  back!  " — Nero  of 
all  others ! — fratricide  and  matricide,  yet  never 
theless  an  able  soldier  and  a  great  emperor, — 
"  Nero  will  come  back  and  lead  the  cohorts  of 
Rome  and  will  build  the  Eternal  City  once 
again  upon  her  seven  hills  and  guard  again  her 
world- wide  roads."  They  were  just  as  confi 
dent  that  the  empire  would  be  saved  as  that  the 
sun  shone  upon  the  Italian  shores. 

In  our  own  country,  in  our  Southland,  when 
the  armies  of  the  Confederacy  were  beaten  and 
fleeing  before  the  armies  of  the  North,  when 
our  farms  and  plantations  were  burned  and  still 
smoking,  when  the  ragged  regiments  were  los 
ing  by  hundreds  the  flower  of  Southern  youth, 
we  kept  saying  to  ourselves,  "  Never  mind,  just 
wait  until  Lee  comes,  wait  until  Jackson  comes, 
and  all  will  be  well ;  some  one  will  yet  come  and 
save  the  falling  cause." 

The  North  American  Indian,  hemmed  in 
upon  his  narrow  reservations,  with  all  the  ro 
mance  and  the  glory  gone  out  of  the  happy 
hunting-ground,  in  his  broken  days  still  has 
his  messiah  dances,  counting  upon  somebody  to 
come  to  win  back  the  fields  and  the  rivers  and 
the  forests  for  him  once  more  and  to  restore 
the  old  tribal  glories.  The  heart  has  no  escape 
from  this  longing — some  one  must  come. 

What  is  true  nationally  is  also  true  of  our 


56  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

individual  lives.  Do  you  not  remember  that 
dark  night  when  you  wrestled  with  some  prob 
lem  so  grave  that  you  could  not  handle  it 
alone, — do  you  not  remember  in  the  long 
hours  how  you  said,  "If  only  somebody  would 
come  and  share  this  with  me,  and  solve  this  for 
me  "  ?  Or  do  you  remember  when  you  tossed 
upon  a  bed  of  inexpressible  pain,  or  worse  yet, 
when  some  one  that  you  loved  better  than  your 
own  life  was  turning  from  side  to  side,  fevered 
and  uneasy,  and  you  said,  "  Oh,  will  he  never 
come  ?  "  as  you  listened  for  the  wheels  upon 
the  gravel  or  the  jangling  of  the  sleigh  bells 
along  the  country  road — "  Will  he  never 
come  ?  "  We  need  a  power  not  ourselves,  we 
need  a  hand  stronger  than  ours;  somebody 
must  reach  out  to  us  in  the  catastrophes,  in 
the  perplexities,  in  the  defeats  and  disasters  of 
life;  some  hand  there  must  be,  some  one  must 
come.  We  cannot  lead  our  lives  and  fight  our 
fights  and  win  our  battles  for  ourselves.  In 
herent  is  this  expectation  in  the  human 
soul. 

Now  what  is  the  answer  that  Jesus  sends 
back  by  these  two  disciples  ?  "  Go  and  tell 
John  what  ye  have  seen  and  heard,  how  that 
the  blind  receive  their  sight,  the  lame  walk,  the 
deaf  hear,  the  lepers  are  cleansed,  the  dead  are 
raised  up,  and  the  poor  have  the  gospel 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  57 

preached  to  them."  There  was  proof  enough 
for  John  and  for  his  followers.  There  was 
satisfaction  in  these  events  for  the  people  of 
that  time.  To  our  present  age  this  answer 
must  be  reinterpreted;  a  different  strain  must 
be  given,  out  of  the  words  of  Christ  Himself, 
and  out  of  the  life  of  Christ,  to  this  reason 
ing,  scientific  age  in  which  we  live. 

Let  us,  then,  take  this  question  of  John  the 
Baptist  and  ponder  its  two  possible  alterna 
tives,  and  answer,  if  we  may,  from  the  life  and 
the  work  and  the  teachings  of  our  Master, 
that  question  for  this  present  age.  For  just  as 
John  asked  it  then,  so  are  strong  men  asking 
it  today,  just  as  the  disciples  of  John  came 
eagerly  to  know  in  that  time  if  Jesus  were  the 
one  that  should  come  or  if  they  should  look 
for  somebody  else,  so  today  business  men  and 
merchants,  working  men  and  travelling  men 
are  asking  that  same  question :  "  Is  he  the 
one?  If  not,  then  I  must  look  for  another." 

Jesus  said  the  blind  see  and  the  deaf  hear. 
And  so  they  do  today.  Jesus  opens  the  eyes 
of  men's  minds,  unstops  the  ears  of  men's 
souls  that  they  may  see  the  light,  that  they 
may  grasp  the  truth ;  for  these  are  things  that 
men  must  have,  light  and  truth.  They  are 
more  important  far  than  the  light  of  the  sun. 
Jesus  must  either  bring  these  things,  or  men 


58  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

must  turn  to  another.  There  must  be  satis 
faction  for  the  mind  of  man  in  any  religion 
that  is  presented  to  him,  otherwise  he  will 
turn  elsewhere  and  find  the  satisfaction  that 
his  mind  must  have.  We  are  convinced,  as 
perhaps  no  other  age  has  ever  been  convinced, 
that  the  world  is  constructed  upon  the  prin 
ciples  of  law  and  order.  We  see  evidences  of 
Mind  back  of  creation.  We  see  the  adaptation 
to  natural  conditions  of  the  leaf  upon  the  tree, 
of  the  roots  that  strike  down  into  the  ground. 
We  see  Mind  in  the  fossiliferous  inscriptions 
on  the  rocks ;  we  see  Mind  in  the  coal  deposits 
and  the  natural-gas  deposits,  in  the  oil,  in  the 
waters,  the  cataracts,  the  mountains  of  stone; 
a  great  Mind  has  been  working  in  the  con 
struction  of  the  world.  And  the  mind  of  man, 
made  in  the  image  of  that  great  Mind,  thirsts 
after  contact  with  Him  and  can  never  be  con 
tent  unless  it  is  in  some  way  in  touch  with  the 
Infinite.  Man's  mind,  allied  to  the  Infinite 
Mind,  has  the  right  to  truth.  It  must  have  the 
truth,  and  it  perishes  without  the  truth.  Mes 
siah  must  first  of  all  bring  it  the  truth. 

Knowledge  is  one  of  the  things  for  which 
humanity  thirsts,  and  he  who  is  to  represent 
humanity  must  come  with  knowledge  in  his 
hand,  or  else  humanity  must  look  somewhere 
else.  Man  wants  to  know.  He  will  pay  more 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  59 

for  knowledge  than  he  will  for  any  other  com 
modity  upon  the  market.  Man  will,  without 
hesitation,  face  frozen  death  at  the  North  Pole. 
Why?  To  bring  back  sperm  oil,  pelts,  ivory? 
No.  But  to  make  a  map  of  the  district,  to 
know  whether  it  is  a  frozen  field  of  ice  or  an 
open  sea, — just  to  know  that  he  has  reached 
the  Pole, — just  to  know.  In  like  manner,  man 
will  face  the  flaming  sword  of  African  fever- 
smitten  districts,  crossing  marshes,  ascending 
rivers  to  their  sources,  exploring  jungles, 
breathing  malaria,  miasma,  and  typhoid;  and 
will  sell  his  life  upon  the  banks  of  great  inland 
lakes.  Why?  In  order  that  he  may  open  up 
for  commerce?  No.  Commerce  will  follow 
upon  his  footsteps,  true;  but  not  for  that  pri 
marily.  In  order  that  he  may  make  a  map, 
in  order  that  he  may  trace  the  rivers  upon  it 
and  diagram  the  lakes  and  the  seas;  in  order 
that  he  may  bring  back  specimens  of  the  flora 
and  the  fauna, — just  that  he  may  know.  So, 
too,  man  goes  down  in  his  diving-bell,  letting 
down  the  fishhooks  of  his  interrogation,  and 
bringing  up  the  secrets  of  the  dark,  un fathomed 
caves  of  ocean.  Why?  For  pearls?  For 
sponges?  For  riches?  They  follow  in  his 
train,  but  primarily  just  that  he  may  know; 
that  he  may  see  what  that  little  black  thing  is 
that  wriggles  through  the  water,  may  grasp 


60  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

it  and  save  it  and  stamp  it  for  ever  and  a  day 
upon  the  books  of  human  knowledge.  So  men 
pore  over  the  secrets  of  dusty  tomes,  volume 
after  volume,  under  the  midnight  oil,  growing 
thin  and  wan,  pale  and  parchment-hued. 
Why?  That  they  may  write  books?  Become 
famous?  Lecture  and  grow  rich?  No,  a 
thousand  times  no.  But  that  their  minds, 
which  crave  the  food  of  the  infinite,  may  know. 
Knowledge  is  not  the  most  valuable  thing  in 
the  world,  but  it  is  one  of  the  most  valuable; 
and  the  Messiah  must  satisfy  these  cravings 
of  the  mind  of  man. 

Now,  does  Jesus?  If  He  does  not,  I  must 
turn  elsewhere  to  find  somebody  that  will  sat 
isfy  me.  I  must  go  to  Socrates ;  I  must  go  to 
Epictetus;  I  must  go  to  Mohammed;  I  must 
go  to  Buddha;  I  must  find  a  mind  that  can 
content  this  restless  mind  of  mine.  I  have  a 
right  to  ask  of  the  Messiah  that  He  satisfy  me. 
Does  He?  Jesus  spake  as  man  never  spake, 
with  a  calm  certainty  and  confidence ;  grappled 
with  the  riddles  of  existence,  tore  them  apart, 
opened  them  up,  spread  them  out,  and  solved 
them  for  the  .minds  of  men.  Who  has  told 
me  of  my  God  except  Jesus  who  said,  "  Our 
Father  who  art  in  Heaven  "  ?  Who  has  told 
me  of  my  fellow-man  and  how  I  am  related  to 
him  except  Jesus  who  said,  "  You  are  brothers 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  61 

one  to  another,  neighbors  all ;  love  your  neigh 
bors  "  ?  Who  has  told  me  of  my  destiny  when 
I  have  shuffled  off  this  mortal  coil,  when  this 
poor  decayed  flesh  has  gone  back  to  dust 
whence  it  came  ?  Who  has  told  me  except 
Jesus :  "  Because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also.  Let 
not  your  heart  be  troubled;  ye  believe  in  God 
believe  also  in  me"?  I  hear  no  other  voice;  I 
listen  intently,  but  from  the  voiceless  lips  of 
the  unreplying  dead  there  comes  no  word,  save 
only  the  word  of  Christ  who  brought  life  and 
immortality  to  light  in  His  gospel.  He  satis 
fies  me.  He  teaches  me  that  I  am  a  reasoning 
and  reasonable  being.  He  treats  me  as  if  I 
were  such,  appeals  to  me  as  if  I  were  such, 
satisfies  me  because  I  am  such.  He  is  prophet 
to  the  mind  of  man. 

But  we  see  more  than  mind  in  this  world. 
There  is  evidence  of  heart  in  nature  just  as 
there  is  of  mind.  Scientists  tell  us  that  noth 
ing  is  still  in  all  the  universe ;  that  every  mole 
cule,  every  atom,  is  in  constant  vibration  and 
never  at  rest.  This  solid  desk,  the  cornerstone 
of  this  building,  is  not  static;  but  every  par 
ticle  is  in  constant  quivering  motion,  throbbing 
and  beating,  answering  to  the  great  heart  that 
is  back  of  all.  The  tides  rise  and  fall.  The 
little  waves  wash  and  pass.  The  leaves  upon 
the  trees  are  not  still;  but  vibrate,  throb,  beat 


62  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

back  and  forth,  in  answer  to  the  zephyrs  that 
flow  from  the  heart  of  the  Eternal. 

Now,  we  all  realize  that  that  is  a  sort  of 
poetry  mingled  with  science,  and  yet  it  is  not 
altogether  fanciful.  In  man  himself  there  is 
evidence  of  heart,  of  emotion;  and  that  desire 
for  contact  with  the  Eternal  heart  that  beats 
back  of  the  world,  is  one  inextinguishable  de 
sire  of  the  human  soul.  The  heart  that  is  back 
of  all  must  beat  in  unison  with  my  heart. 
There  is  a  kinship  between  Him  and  me;  and 
the  hidden  or  lost  tie  must  be  found  in  the 
one  who  would  come  to  satisfy  and  supply  the 
souls  of  men.  Does  Jesus  answer  here  ? 

The  profoundest  desire  of  the  human  heart 
is  for  satisfaction  from  its  sense  of  guilt,  which 
is  the  oldest  consciousness  of  all  humanity. 
From  the  Garden  of  Eden,  or  from  the  cave 
where  the  cave  men  dwelt,  just  as  you  prefer, 
down  to  the  present  day,  the  universal  con 
sciousness  is  the  consciousness  of  sin,  of  fall, 
of  frailty,  of  failure  to  live  up  to  one's  own 
expectations  and  ideals.  Does  Jesus  answer 
here  ?  How  man  has  striven  to  solve  the  prob 
lem  of  his  guilt!  What  does  Jesus  say  to 
him?  He  comes  to  that  paralytic  beside  the 
waters  of  Bethesda,  to  the  man  who  was  pay 
ing  the  penalty  of  his  own  sin,  and  says  to  him, 
"  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee ;  arise,  take  up  thy 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  63 

bed  and  walk."  He  says  to  the  poor  woman  in 
the  temple,  "  Has  no  man  condemned  thee?  " 
"  No  man,  Lord."  "  Neither  do  I  condemn 
thee;  go  and  sin  no  more." 

It  is  so  that  the  Messiah  must  speak: — 
"  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee."  Did  Socrates 
ever  speak  so  ?  Did  Seneca  ever  talk  so  ?  Did 
Mohammed,  did  Buddha?  Is  there  any  other 
voice  that  has  rung  through  the  world,  "  Thy 
sins  be  forgiven  thee  "  ?  That  is  the  way  our 
Master  must  speak  to  us,  else  we  must  look 
for  another.  We  hear  no  other  voice  saying 
to  the  dead  in  trespasses  and  sins,  saying  to  the 
leprous  in  shame  and  crime,  "  Thy  sins  be  for 
given  thee."  He  has  solved  the  problem.  He 
is  the  priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Mel- 
chizedek,  mysterious,  profound,  incomprehen 
sible;  and  since  Jesus  came,  we  need  no  other 
priest  to  do  our  praying  for  us.  We  need  no 
other  priest  to  stand  between  God  and  us  to  get 
our  absolution  for  us.  Through  Him  we  do 
our  own  praying,  boldly  yet  humbly,  at  the 
throne  of  grace.  Through  Him  we  get  our 
own  absolution,  our  own  forgiveness  directly 
from  the  throne  of  God.  He  is  not  only 
the  prophet,  then,  for  the  mind,  the  teacher 
who  is  to  lead  us  aright;  but  He  is  the  priest 
to  satisfy  the  emotion,  the  heart,  the  soul. 

Once  again,  He  said,  most  wonderful  of  all, 


64  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

"  The  poor  have  the  gospel  preached  unto 
them."  There  is  a  proof  of  His  Messiahship. 
Here  was  one  who  took  into  consideration  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  Here  was  one 
who  talked  to  the  intellectual  Greeks,  to  the 
rich  Pharisees  and  publicans  like  Nicodemus 
and  Zaccheus;  and  here  was  one  who  con 
sidered  the  poor,  the  Arab  in  his  filth,  the 
Bedouin  in  his  black  tent  upon  the  desert,  the 
toiler  behind  the  little  crooked  stick  of  a  plow, 
the  dweller  in  the  mud  hut  of  the  hills  of 
Syria, — all  have  the  gospel  preached  to  them. 
So  we  find  the  universal  Lordship  of  a  King 
who  considers  all  His  subjects  and  reigns  in 
the  hearts  and  minds  of  all  kinds  of  people, 
who  satisfies  not  only  the  intellectual  c.nd  the 
emotional,  but  the  volitional  life  of  men  and 
women,  who  governs  as  a  King  of  Kindliness. 
The  wills  of  men  no  less  than  the  minds 
and  hearts  must  be  satisfied.  We  say  in  this 
Western  world,  in  our  republic,  that  every  man 
is  a  king,  that  we  have  no  king,  that  none  rules 
over  us  but  ourselves.  But  all  the  time  we  are 
bowing  our  wills  to  kingly  men.  All  the  time 
we  are  subjecting  our  volitional  life  to  out 
side  influences  and  dictation.  If  it  were  not 
so,  our  republic  in  all  its  freedom  and  with  all 
its  possibilities,  would  be  crushed  and  broken 
into  a  thousand  atoms.  Wills  must  be  con- 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  65 

trolled.  Yonder  belted  and  helmeted  man  with 
the  mace,  that  stands  at  the  corner  of  your 
Broadway,  or  of  your  State  Street,  or  of  your 
Tremont  Street,  is  perhaps  no  stronger,  even 
physically,  than  hundreds  of  men  who  pass  that 
way  every  day;  yet  there  must  be  a  guiding 
will  in  that  maelstrom  of  traffic,  there  must 
be  a  man  of  authority  to  say  to  this  car  come, 
and  it  comes,  and  to  this  one  pause,  and  it 
stops.  Why  is  it  that  the  seats  in  an  auditorium 
are  all  turned  in  one  direction?  It  is  not  be 
cause  the  man  who  stands  there  as  chairman 
or  speaker  is  any  better  or  more  able,  even  in 
tellectually,  than  hundreds  of  others  who  are  in 
the  great  convention  hall;  but  it  is  because 
every  assembly  must  be  guided  and  controlled ; 
there  must  be  a  will  to  which  voluntarily  the 
wills  of  other  men  yield,  otherwise  there  can  be 
no  order.  In  like  fashion,  every  great  com 
pany  of  men  and  women,  whether  it  is  mob  or 
nation,  is  ready  to  subject  its  will  to  any  one 
who  arises  and  says,  "  Follow  me ;  I  can  lead 
you;  I  will  lead  you."  How  quickly  a  mob 
flows  after  a  strong  man,  goes  wherever  he 
directs  it;  how  quickly  it  is  silenced  and 
stopped  by  one  man  who  dares  stand  up  and 
say,  "  I  know  what  should  be  done ;  follow 
me"! 

James  A.  Garfield  spoke  but  a  single  word 


66  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

to  the  mob  of  surging  thousands  in  New  York 
the  night  of  Lincoln's  assassination,  and  they 
went  back  pacified  to  their  homes.  He  said, 
"  God  reigns  and  the  government  at  Washing 
ton  still  lives."  Henry  Ward  Beecher  stood 
before  the  packed  and  hostile  audiences  of 
England  listening  calmly  to  their  jeers  and  cat 
calls  and  uproar,  facing  even  their  missiles, 
and  their  firearms,  calm  and  unafraid,  waiting 
for  his  moment  of  mastery  which  always 
came.  The  strong  man  holds  the  mob  in  his 
palm. 

The  man  who  can,  the  man  who  is  able,  is 
the  king  of  men,  crowned  or  uncrowned.  He 
is  the  canning  one,  in  the  German  phrase,  the 
Koenig,  the  King.  Here  comes  this  man,  Jesus 
of  Nazareth,  this  peasant  who  stands  amongst 
the  mob  of  Jerusalem,  of  the  world,  wild  and 
ungovernable  as  they  are,  and  says  to  them: 
"  Adopt  this  system  of  laws  ?  Write  these 
statutes  on  your  books  ?  Organize  this  army  "  ? 
Not  at  all.  He  says,  "  Follow  me."  This  is 
His  great  message  to  the  world.  "  Follow 
me.  I  am  able;  I  can  lead  you;  I  can  save 
you." 

"Thou  seem'st  human  and  divine, 
The  highest,  holiest  manhood,  Thou ; 
Our  wills  are  ours,  we  know  not  how, 
Our  wills  are  ours  to  make  them  Thine." 


SOME  ONE  TO  COME  67 

He  has  reigned  and  increasingly  reigned 
ever  since,  even  to  this  day. 

Thus  He  answers  the  cry  of  the  soul  of  man 
in  all  its  needs  and  capacities.  He  answers 
as  prophet  to  the  mind;  He  answers  as  priest 
to  the  heart ;  He  answers  as  king  to  the  will, — 
prophet,  priest,  and  king. 

"All  hail  the  power  of  Jesus'  name, 
Let  angels  prostrate  fall, 
Bring  forth  the  royal  diadem, 
And   crown    Him,    crown    Him,   crown    Him    Lord 
of  all." 

We  need  not  look  elsewhere.  We  call  the 
roll  of  all  the  heroes  and  the  sages  and  the 
saints  and  the  priests  among  the  sons  of  earth, 
and  there  is  no  answer  from  any  of  them  to  the 
cry  of  our  souls  except  the  answer  that  Jesus 
gives  to  mind  and  heart  and  will.  "  Seek  for 
your  master,"  said  Phillips  Brooks;  "  never  be 
content  until  you  find  Him  who,  by  His  wis 
dom,  power,  and  love,  has  the  right  to  rule 
over  you,  and  then  give  yourself  to  Him  com 
pletely." 

A  man  was  on  trial  for  his  life;  the  verdict 
had  not  yet  been  rendered;  it  was  early  in  the 
gray  dawn  after  a  night  of  storm  and  stress; 
the  prisoner  stood  there  at  the  convergence  of 
the  power  of  two  great  nations,  deserted  and 
alone,  with  no  attorney  to  stand  in  his  behalf. 


68  SOME  ONE  TO  COME 

His  face — you  can  almost  see  it  now — was 
ashy  pale ;  wan  and  emaciated  his  figure ;  drops 
of  blood  trickled  upon  his  brow  where  they  had 
mocked  him  with  a  crown  of  thorns;  lashes 
were  evident  upon  his  back  where  they  had 
laid  upon  him  the  scourge  of  ignominy;  but 
never  was  human  figure  more  dignified,  more 
superb  than  when  he  stood  before  the  con 
centrated  power  of  Rome  and  of  Israel.  Pilate 
was  awed  as  he  looked  upon  him,  and  Pilate, 
the  practical,  the  bullet-headed,  the  iron- 
handed,  said  to  him :  "  A  king?  They  say  that 
Thou  art  a  king?" 

The  Master  made  answer :  "  Thou  sayest  it. 
I  am  a  king;  for  this  cause  came  I  into  the 
world,  to  bear  witness  to  the  truth.  But  my 
kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  else  would  my 
servants  fight.  I  am  a  king."  So  He  was 
and  so  He  is,  every  inch  a  king,  the  king  of  the 
souls  of  men. 


IV 
THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

IN  order  to  be  still  better  assured  whether 
the  Master  of  Nazareth  answers  the  needs 
of  the  Common  Man,  it  may  be  worth 
while  to  estimate  Him  in  the  three  aspects  al 
ready  outlined,  of  Teacher,  Priest,  and  Prince. 

We  must  all  of  us  learn  from  teachers. 
From  the  time  when  we  lisped  our  first  les 
sons  at  our  mothers'  knees,  through  the 
primary  schools,  secondary  schools,  colleges 
and  universities,  even  out  into  the  ways  of 
business,  on  the  farms,  in  the  mines,  forests,  or 
homes,  we  are  shortsighted  indeed,  if  we  do 
not  tread  in  the  paths  marked  out  for  us  by 
those  who  have  gone  before.  Even  if  we 
should  dare  to  explore  our  own  independent 
way,  without  guidance  or  help,  experience  her 
self  comes  in  at  the  last  as  the  sternest  and 
most  inexorable  of  pedagogues. 

Measured,  then,  by  the  tests  we  ordinarily 
make  for  teachers,  how  does  the  Nazarene 
fare?  If  we  should  systematize  these  tests,  in 
all  probability  they  would  be  about  like  this : 


70  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

Has  the  Teacher  a  message?  Has  He 
knowledge  of  the  human  mind  ?  Can  He  make 
the  subtle  contact  between  the  two,  the  mes 
sage  and  the  mind? 

It  were  folly  to  follow  a  teacher  who  knew 
nothing  to  teach;  the  blind  leading  the  blind. 
But  many  teachers  know  a  great  deal,  without 
having  ability  to  impart  what  they  know. 
They  lack  insight,  it  may  be,  into  the  mind  of 
the  learner;  they  are  unable  to  take  his  point 
of  view;  and  so  they  cannot  help  him  in  that 
process  which  students  of  the  mind  call  apper 
ception — the  passage  from  the  known  to  the 
unknown.  Further  yet,  there  are  conceivably 
those  who  know  much,  and  in  this  knowledge 
include  knowledge  of  humanity,  who  yet,  from 
lack  of  a  delicate  unknown  quantity  which 
we  call  personality,  magnetism,  are  unable  to 
connect  up  the  two  nodes,  that  of  the  message 
and  the  mind. 

By  this  triple  test,  Jesus  records  the  high 
est  possible  registration.  He  had  a  message; 
He  knew  men ;  He  knew  the  methods  of  presen 
tation.  The  trefoil  of  the  teacher's  power,  the 
open  sesame  to  the  soul  were  in  His  easy  pos 
session  : — knowledge  of  a  message,  men,  and 
methods.  Methods  is  rather  too  mechanical 
a  term  by  which  to  express  this  wonderful, 
intangible,  spiritual  way  of  approach  to  the 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  71 

inner  recesses  of  the  soul;  but  it  is  a  word  in 
common  use  among  teachers,  in  whose  lan 
guage  for  a  moment  we  are  trying  to  think. 

He  knew  men,  and  needed  not  that  any 
should  tell  Him  what  was  in  man.  He  looked 
into  the  faces  of  fishermen,  and,  more  adroitly 
than  Satan,  sifted  them  as  wheat.  He  ate  and 
drank  with  publicans  and  men  of  the  world, 
and  they  became  His  fast  friends.  He  talked 
with  women  who  had  histories,  saw  the  play 
and  interplay  of  motive,  read  the  seared,  sob 
bing,  dried-up  hearts,  and  redeemed  them.  He 
drew  to  him,  by  His  knowledge  of  them,  His 
charm  for  them,  His  love  for  them,  men  of 
high  attainments  as  well  as  laboring-men.  Siae 
by  side  at  His  manger-cradle  knelt  shepherds 
and  wise  men;  side  by  side  in  His  audiences 
and  in  His  following,  went  men  of  high  con 
dition  and  of  low.  When  He  began  His  teach 
ing,  He  beautifully  chose  to  go  first  to  fisher 
men,  shepherds,  tillers  of  the  soil;  but 
Nicodemus,  and  certain  Greeks,  and  who 
knows  but  the  great  Gamaliel  himself,  came  to 
Him. 

He  knew  the  methods  of  approach  by  which 
to  gain  entrance  at  all  doors.  Was  it  a  pol 
ished  Pharisee  who  came  to  engage  Him  in 
debate?  He  wasted  no  time  on  rudiments,  on 
alphabets,  on  mint,  anise,  or  cummin.  He 


72  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

looked  the  man  between  the  eyes  and  said, 
"  You  must  be  born  again."  He  began  on  a 
high  plane  and  conducted  the  whole  interview 
there.  Was  it  a  poor  drab  by  the  well-curb  of 
Samaria?  He  quickly  silenced  her  bantering 
tongue  and  routed  her  crude  wiles  with  a 
thrust  into  the  suppuration  of  her  life.  Was 
it  a  group  of  uncandid  opponents  who  came 
to  impale  Him  on  the  horns  of  their  dilemma? 
He  turned  the  dilemma  into  an  antithesis,  an 
epigram,  that  will  stick  in  the  minds  of  men 
while  time  lasts :  "  Render  unto  Caesar  the 
things  that  are  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  the 
things  that  are  God's." 

Now,  however,  let  us  turn  to  the  message. 
Let  us  ask  the  old  question,  "  What  think  ye 
of  Christ,  His  word  ?  "  Perhaps  our  first  an 
swer  may  aptly  come  from  some  of  the  men 
in  the  street  who  heard  Him.  A  set  of  officers 
from  the  temple  guard,  minions  of  the  chief 
priest,  were  sent  one  time  to  arrest  Him.  They 
came  back,  thumbs  in  mouths  and  answered, 
"  Never  man  so  spake !  " 

A  strange  answer  for  commissioned  officers, 
sent  forth  to  arrest  a  malefactor.  If  the  chief 
of  police  of  a  modern  city,  or  the  sheriff  of  a 
county,  should  swear  in  a  posse  of  deputies 
and  send  them  out  to  arrest  some  criminal, 
and  those  deputies  should  come  back  and  say, 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  73 

"  No  man  ever  talked  like  this  man ;  we  never 
heard  any  man  speak  like  this  man,"  we  should 
all  agree  that  it  was  a  strange  answer  for  com 
missioned  officers  of  the  law  sent  out  to  ar 
rest  a  man. 

No  doubt  these  men  had  followed  Jesus 
about  for  several  days,  listening  to  His  words, 
trying  to  take  Him  in  His  talk,  to  find  ground 
upon  which  to  witness  against  Him.  You  can 
see  them  now  as,  on  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd, 
their  dark,  Oriental  eyes  overhung  by  their 
dark,  Oriental  brows,  they  listen  half  list 
lessly  to  what  Jesus  is  saying.  Suddenly  some 
such  utterance  as  this  strikes  their  ear :  "  I  am 
the  bread  of  life."  "  I  am  the  water  of  life." 
"  I  am  the  Way  and  the  Truth  and  the  Life. 
No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me." 
"  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor  and  are 
heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest."  Their 
brows  lift,  their  eyes  open,  they  listen  more  in 
tently;  unconsciously  they  edge  their  way  in 
through  the  crowd ;  until  by  and  by,  in  the  very 
front  rank  of  His  hearers,  with  eyes  wide 
open,  and  ears  wide  open,  and  mouths  wide 
open,  they  are  hanging  upon  His  utterances. 
Then  the  crowd  breaks  up.  These  men 
mechanically  betake  themselves  back  to  the 
palace  of  the  high  priest,  having  forgotten 
their  errand;  and  when  at  last  they  are  con- 


74  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

fronted  with  the  stern  question,  "  Why  have 
ye  not  brought  Him?  ",  they  had  not  thought 
what  answer  to  make,  and  they  just  blurt 
out  the  first  word  that  comes  to  mind,  "  Never 
man  spake  like  this  man.  We  never  heard  any 
body  talk  like  this  man."  A  strange  answer, 
indeed,  from  commissioned  officers  sent  out  to 
arrest  a  blasphemer. 

But  strange  as  this  answer  is,  it  is  the  same 
that  ever  has  been  made  by  all  who,  in  the  his 
tory  of  the  world  since  the  time  of  Jesus,  have 
gone  forth  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the  Christ. 
Many  a  man  in  the  strength  of  his  mighty 
mind  has  said :  "  I  will  stop  Him ;  I  will  arrest 
Him;  I  will  put  an  end  to  this  delusion  of 
Christianity ;  give  me  time.  When  my  book  is 
written,  when  my  system  is  complete,  when  my 
word  is  spoken,  and  my  work  is  done,  then 
no  longer  will  men  listen  to  this  Jesus."  But 
after  the  work  has  been  accomplished,  after 
the  book  is  written  and  the  word  spoken,  these 
men,  all  of  them  without  exception,  have  come 
back  saying,  "  Never  man  spake  like  this  man." 

There  was  Strauss  in  Germany  who  wrote 
his  Leben  Jesu,  the  Life  of  Jesus,  to  prove  that 
the  Master  was  a  myth,  an  idea,  an  ideal,  beau 
tiful  but  legendary, — Strauss  closes  his  volume 
with  a  tribute  of  the  highest  respect  to  the 
very  conception  of  such  a  life  as  that  of  Christ. 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  75 

When  he  yields  the  idea,  he  yields  all ;  for  the 
man  capable  of  the  idea,  the  ideal  of  a  life  like 
that  of  Jesus,  must  have  been  the  Christ  Him 
self;  no  other  could  have  conceived  it.  In 
France,  Renan,  with  his  Vie  de  Jesu,  his  Life 
of  Jesus,  beautiful,  poetical,  paying  high 
tribute  to  the  aesthetic  attractiveness  of  the 
great  teacher,  the  "  Charming  Rabbi,"  closes 
his  volume  with  these  words :  "  Whatever 
miracle  the  future  may  bring  forth,  Jesus  of 
Nazareth  will  never  be  surpassed."  And  John 
Stuart  Mill,  in  England, — with  much  the  same 
attitude  as  these  other  two, — has  somewhere 
declared  that  humanity  has  made  no  mistake 
in  lighting  upon  Jesus  of  Nazareth  as  the  acme 
of  mankind.  Those  are  great  men  speaking, — 
men  whose  minds  command  respect  and  whose 
work  has  been  epoch-making  in  the  world. 
Each  one  of  them  comes  back  with  the  same 
answer  as  these  officers,  "  Never  man  spake  like 
this  man."  Whatever  else  they  may  say,  this 
is  the  universal  verdict  of  truly  great  men  who 
have  examined  the  life  of  Jesus. 

A  yet  more  modern  voice  comes,  and  Ru 
dolph  Eucken,  writing  in  the  last  few  years 
upon  the  subject  "  Can  We  Still  Be  Chris 
tians  ? "  declares  that  it  is  a  startling  fact  that 
the  scholarly  minds,  the  great  minds  amongst 
men  in  all  Christian  history,  striving  to  get 


76  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

along  on  other  than  Christian  ground,  have 
almost  without  exception  been  compelled  to 
acknowledge  that  they  cannot  succeed ;  we  can 
not  live  without  Jesus,  once  having  known 
Him. 

Now,  what  was  there  about  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  that  it  thus  lays  hold  upon  the  minds  of 
men,  so  that  when  once  they  have  heard  it  they 
never  can  forget  it  ?  What  is  there  about  His 
words  that,  like  grappling  hooks,  fasten  in  the 
mind  and  never  can  be  shaken  out?  It  is  not 
that  He  was  a  great  literary  artist,  though  He 
was.  It  is  not  ornamentation  and  decoration 
of  speech,  for  there  was  with  Him  no  striving 
after  effect,  no  "  sewing  on  of  purple-patches," 
no  "  painting  in  of  cypress-trees,"  in  His  can 
vas.  He  was  a  plain,  blunt  man  that  simply 
spoke  right  on;  in  words  of  wondrous  beauty, 
to  be  sure,  whose  literary  and  poetical  value 
has  rarely  been  equalled,  and  never  surpassed, 
by  any  great  teacher  of  ethical  truth;  but  the 
secret  lies  not  in  literary  charm. 

Neither  was  it  any  striving  after  originality, 
after  the  new  and  the  strange  and  the  unusual. 
In  this  age  of  ours  the  man  must  have  a  very 
unusual  message  if  he  is  to  catch  the  public 
ear.  Something  original  that  nobody  else  has 
ever  spoken,  something  Bernard  Shawesque, 
is  necessary  to  catch  the  attention  and  reach 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  77 

the  ears  of  men.  We  will  not  read  this  morn 
ing's  paper ;  we  must  have  this  evening's  paper  ; 
and  not  the  three-o'clock  edition,  nor  the  four- 
o'clock  edition,  nor  the  five-o'clock  edition,  but 
the  extra  hot  from  the  press  and  still  damp 
with  the  printer's  ink.  And  the  novels  that  we 
read,  they  must  be  fearfully  and  wonderfully 
made  if  they  do  not  pall  upon  the  taste  of  this 
blase  age.  We  need  not  think  we  have  a 
monopoly  of  the  desire  for  the  new,  the 
strange,  the  unusual.  When  Jesus  came,  there 
were  men  who  gathered  together  for  nothing 
else  but  to  hear  or  tell  some  new  and  strange 
thing.  Now,  Jesus  does  not  pander  to  this 
taste  for  the  abnormal  and  the  new.  He  does 
not  hesitate  to  take  old  truths  and  recoin  them 
and  use  them  over  again  for  the  good  of  men. 
He  does  not  hesitate  to  borrow  from  the 
Prophets,  from  Moses,  from  the  Pentateuch. 
Confucius,  they  say,  spoke  the  Golden  Rule 
five  centuries  before  Jesus  uttered  it.  Con 
fucius  said,  "  Do  not  unto  others  what  ye 
would  not  that  others  should  do  unto  you." 
Jesus  turned  it  about  and  made  it  positive 
and  said,  "  Do  unto  others  as  you  would  that 
others  should  do  unto  you."  You  say  there  is 
no  difference  between  the  two; — one  is  simply 
negative  and  the  other  positive.  Yes,  but  that 
is  all  the  difference  in  the  world; — the  differ- 


78  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

ence  between  the  negative  Orient  under  its 
banyan  tree  and  within  its  age-old  walls,  and 
the  positive,  active  Occident, — the  difference 
between  the  East  and  the  West.  So  with  Jesus, 
truth,  wherever  He  finds  it,  and  whenever  He 
finds  it,  becomes  grist  for  His  mill,  becomes 
ore  for  His  mint.  He  takes  it  and  stamps  it 
with  His  own  inimitable  coinage  and  sends  it 
out  current  legal  tender  in  the  world. 

So  it  is  the  truth  and  the  character  of  the 
truth  that  He  uttered;  it  is  the  fact  that  He 
spake  as  man  never  spake  before  and  has  never 
spoken  since;  it  is  this  that  makes  Him  all- 
powerful  in  the  minds  of  men,  so  that  whether 
they  will  or  no,  whenever  they  come  into  the 
presence  of  His  teaching  they  bow  and  must 
bow;  they  cannot  forget;  they  cannot  let  go 
of  it. 

It  would  be  manifestly  impossible  in  the  few 
short  pages  at  our  command  to  make  any 
thing  like  an  adequate  resume  of  the  teaching 
of  Jesus;  so  varied  is  it,  so  widely  applicable 
to  the  life  of  men.  It  is  like  a  many-peaked 
mountain  range.  But  it  is  possible  to  glance 
over  the  great  snow-crowned  summits  of  the 
group,  even  as  it  is  possible  to  look  over  the 
Alps  and  see  the  Jungfrau,  the  Matterhorn, 
and  Mont  Blanc.  At  a  moment's  glance  two  or 
three  of  the  most  valuable  of  His  utterances 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  79 

capture  attention,  which  have  become  an  ever 
lasting  and  inestimable  heritage  of  mankind. 

Let  us  select  three  of  these,  three  that  have 
to  do  with  the  relations  existing  among  the 
only  three  beings  that  we  know  anything  about 
in  the  world:  God,  myself,  and  my  fellow- 
man. 

I  know  that  God  is.  There  have  been,  of 
course,  those  who  have  denied  His  existence, 
but  they  are  few.  The  great  multitude  of  men 
and  women  from  the  beginning  of  man's  con 
scious  life  have  known  that  God  is.  Only  the 
fool  hath  said  in  his  heart  there  is  no  God.  The 
great  philosophers  and  teachers,  scholars  of 
all  human  history,  have  recognized  the  exist 
ence  of  God ;  and  it  is  idle  to  try  to  prove  that 
God  is.  You  do  not  need  to  prove  what  men 
already  believe. 

Then  I  know  that  I  am.  There  are  some 
philosophers  who  have  tried  to  teach  us  that 
we  could  not  be  certain  of  our  own  individual 
existence.  But  you  never  can  convince  a  man 
that  he  himself  is  not  an  entity.  Descartes  it 
is,  the  father  of  modern  philosophy,  who  bases 
his  whole  system  on  the  assertion,  "  I  think,  I 
doubt,  therefore  I  am." 

Then  I  am  conscious  of  the  existence  of  my 
neighbor.  There  have  been  philosophers  and 
whole  nations,  at  times,  who  have  tried  to 


80  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

convince  the  world  that  we  could  not  be  cer 
tain  of  anything  outside  of  ourselves ;  that  the 
world  was  a  delusion.  But  you  cannot  con 
vince  me  that  my  neighbor  does  not  exist.  I 
think,  therefore  I  am;  and  I  communicate  my 
thought  to  him  and  he  grasps  it  and  gives  me 
his  thought  back  from  himself;  so  he  thinks, 
therefore  he  is.  So  then,  those  three  beings 
exist:  God,  myself,  and  my  neighbor. 

The  relations  existing  among  them,  that  is 
the  all-important  thing  to  us.  And  what  are 
those  relations  existing  between  God  and  my 
self,  between  myself  and  my  neighbor,  and 
between  man  and  God?  Those  are  the  ques 
tions  which  strike  to  the  very  root  of  man's 
life.  And  the  answer  to  those  questions  is  the 
answer  for  which  man  has  been  craving 
through  all  the  millenniums  of  his  existence. 

When  Jesus  came  He  found  men  perplexed 
with  regard  to  the  relation  of  God  and  man. 
They  knew  that  there  was  a  God,  but  they 
did  not  know  what  kin  He  was  to  them.  They 
looked  out  upon  the  world  of  nature  and  the 
world  of  history,  the  only  inspired  book  to 
which  most  of  them  had  access,  and  they  saw 
two  kinds  of  gods,  or  God,  in  the  world :  good 
gods  and  evil  gods,  beneficent  gods  and  de 
structive  gods.  In  the  spring  of  the  year, 
they  saw  the  trees  and  shrubs  and  fields  bring- 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  81 

ing  forth  bud  and  blossom  and  ultimately  fruit, 
to  bless  and  feed  the  world;  and  they  said, 
"  Here  is  a  good  God,  a  kindly  God  that  brings 
these  gifts  to  men."  Then  they  saw  the  mil 
dew,  or  the  blight,  or  the  storm,  or  the  un 
timely  frost  cut  down  and  blast  and  blacken 
that  leafage  and  that  fruitage;  and  they  said, 
"  Here  is  an  evil,  a  destroying  god  in  the 
world."  And  they  could  not  understand. 
They  looked  out  over  the  sea,  that  beautiful 
Mediterranean  that  was  the  ocean  of  the  time, 
and  they  saw  it  smooth  and  wind-swept,  bear 
ing  the  ships  on  to  their  desired  haven  with 
their  riches,  blessing  and  benefiting  mankind; 
and  they  said,  "  Here  are  the  footsteps  of  the 
good  God."  Then  they  saw  that  same  sea  toss 
ing  mountain  high,  dashing  ships  to  the  bot 
tom,  and  they  said,  "  Here  is  an  evil,  a  destroy 
ing  god,  that  is  working  against  that  good  and 
kindly  god  " ;  and  they  were  perplexed.  They 
saw  the  mountains,  bringing  forth  gold  and 
silver  and  precious  stones,  to  adorn  and  to 
enrich  humanity;  then  they  saw  those  same 
mountains  belching  forth  fire  and  smoke  and 
lava  and  burying  whole  cities.  They  said, 
"  Here  is  a  warfare  going  on  between  a  benefi 
cent  or  good  God  and  a  destructive  or  evil 
god."  Job  cries,  "  When  I  look  before  me,  I 
cannot  find  Him,  and  when  I  look  behind,  I  do 


82  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

not  perceive  Him."  The  psalmist  who  wrote 
that  ninetieth  Psalm,  standing  as  close  to  God 
as  undoubtedly  the  singer  of  such  a  song  did 
stand,  cries  out  in  a  pathetic  perplexity  in  the 
two  strains  woven  together : 

"  Lord,  Thou  hast  been  our  dwelling  place  in 
all  generations.  Before  the  mountains  were 
brought  forth,  or  ever  Thou  hadst  formed  the 
earth  and  the  world,  even  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting,  Thou  art  God ;  " — the  good,  the 
kindly,  the  beneficent  God. — "  Thou  turnest 
man  to  destruction ;  " — there  is  the  evil  god. — 
"And  sayest  (to  another  generation),  Return, 
ye  children  of  men.  For  a  thousand  years  in 
Thy  sight  are  but  as  yesterday  when  it  is  past, 
and  as  a  watch  in  the  night ;  " — the  good  God, 
the  giver  of  life. — "  Thou  carriest  them  away 
as  with  a  flood ;  " — the  evil  god  that  destroys. — 
"  They  are  as  a  sleep :  in  the  morning  they  are 
like  grass  which  groweth  up.  In  the  morning 
it  flourisheth,  and  groweth  up ;  " — the  good,  the 
creative  God — "  In  the  evening,  it  is  cut  down, 
and  withereth,  for  we  are  consumed  by  Thine 
anger  and  by  Thy  wrath  are  we  troubled ;  " — 
the  destroyer.  The  Singer  was  seeking  in  the 
darkness,  if  haply  he  might  find  Him,  and  yet 
not  understanding  Him;  it  was  a  tragedy,  to 
know  that  God  was  and  yet  not  to  know  what 
kin  He  was  to  man. 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  83 

Now,  what  does  Jesus  say  ?  "  Our  Father 
Who  art  in  heaven ;  "  "I  go  unto  my  Father 
and  to  your  Father,  to  my  God  and  your  God ;  " 
"  Our  Father  Who  art  in  heaven."  Never 
man  spake  like  that; — such  calm  certitude. 
The  Hindu  yonder  in  the  jungles,  years  before, 
had  sung  about  Deus  Pater,  the  Father  God. 
The  Greek  poet  had  written  of  Zeus  Pater,  the 
Father  God,  the  same  name.  The  Romans  had 
talked  of  Jupiter,  the  Father  God,  the  same 
name; — and  yet  of  what  unspeakable  crimes 
did  they  make  this  so-called  Father  of  men 
guilty!  They  had  no  conception  of  a  Father 
in  heaven,  who  was  a  real  father  to  the  race. 
It  remained  for  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth  to 
teach  us,  so  that  we  can  never  forget  it  to 
this  hour,  the  true  kinship  of  God  to  man.  To 
day,  the  little  child  by  his  bed,  or  by  his 
mother's  knee,  and  the  strong  man  battling  with 
the  waves  of  life,  alike  say,  "  Our  Father  Who 
art  in  heaven."  The  words  are  household 
words  now,  and  on  occasion  are  in  everybody's 
mouth. 

But,  after  all,  how  many  of  us  have  grasped 
firmly  and  profoundly  the  love  of  God  as  a 
Father  of  man?  A  gentleman  who  had  two 
beautiful  little  children  once  said  to  me : 
"  When  these  children  were  very  young,  I 
would  not  dare  stand  on  the  ground  and  reach 


84.  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

up  my  hands  to  them  at  the  second  story  win 
dow  of  my  home  with  an  invitation  to  them 
to  come.  They  would  leap  right  down  to  me, 
in  an  instant."  That  is  fatherhood.  That  is 
the  loving  trust  that  a  child  feels  for  a  normal, 
sincere,  and  loving  father.  We  speak  of  the 
love  of  motherhood  and  the  beauty  of  it,  and 
it  is  the  most  beautiful  thing  in  the  world; 
but  there  is  something  to  be  said  for  a  father's 
love  as  well;  a  willingness  to  give  and  be 
given,  to  spend  and  be  spent  for  the  sake  of 
the  offspring,  a  willingness  to  stand  at  the 
threshold,  if  need  be,  and  die  in  the  guardian 
ship  of  them.  That  is  what  fatherhood  means. 
Do  you  suppose  if  we  believed,  you  and  I,  pro 
foundly  in  the  fatherhood  of  God,  that  there 
would  be  any  one  of  us  staying  away  from 
Him  in  the  brightness  and  the  glory  and  the 
blessing  of  this  relationship?  Nothing  on  earth 
could  keep  us  from  Him,  if  once  we  grasped 
the  deep  significance  of  this  message  of  Jesus 
Christ's. 

Again,  when  Jesus  came  He  found  men  per 
plexed  with  regard  to  the  relation  existing 
between  man  and  his  fellow-man.  He  found 
that  in  that  day,  to  be  a  Roman  was  greater 
than  to  be  king;  but  to  be  anything  else  than 
a  Roman  was  to  be  a  foreigner,  an  enemy. 
The  names  of  the  two  were  synonymous  in 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  85 

Latin,  and  in  many  another  language  besittes. 
He  found  that  to  be  a  Greek  was  to  be  one  of 
the  cultivated,  one  of  the  refined,  one  of  the 
teachers,  leaders  of  men;  to  be  anything  else 
than  a  Greek  was  to  be  a  barbarian,  bearded 
and  savage.  He  found  that  to  be  a  Jew  was 
to  be  one  of  God's  own  chosen  people;  but  to 
be  anything  else  than  a  Jew  was  to  be  a  gentile, 
with  an  accent  and  a  sneer  upon  the  first  syl 
lable.  So  it  was  every  nation  for  itself  and  the 
devil  take  the  hindmost; — just  as  it  is  today. 
It  was  each  nation  armed  cap-a-pie  against 
every  other  nation  and  Ishmaels  all — just  as  it 
is  today. 

Now,  what  did  Jesus  say  ?  He  said  a  certain 
man  went  down  to  Jericho,  and  fell  among 
thieves  that  beat  him  and  stripped  him  and  left 
him  by  the  roadside  half  dead.  Then  there 
came  by  a  priest  and  there  came  by  a  Levite, 
men  sworn  under  their  solemn  oaths  to  be  of 
service  and  benefit  to  every  Israelite  with  whom 
they  came  into  touch.  These  men,  seeing  their 
bloody  fellow-countryman  lying  in  the  road, 
gathered  their  skirts  about  them,  for  they  were 
on  their  way  to  the  temple  to  worship,  and  if 
they  had  soiled  themselves  with  blood  they 
would  have  been  ceremonially  unclean  and,  for 
sooth,  unable  to  enter  into  the  church  of  God 
and  offer  worship  to  the  Almighty  Father. 


86  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

There  is  many  a  man  of  that  sort  in  America 
today.  Then  there  passed  a  Samaritan.  And 
if  there  was  anybody  that  a  Jew  hated  with  all 
his  soul  it  was  a  Samaritan;  and  if  there  was 
anybody  a  Samaritan  loathed  from  the  bottom 
of  his  heart  it  was  a  Jew.  Yet  this  man  it  is, 
of  all  others,  who  gets  down  off  his  beast  and 
binds  up  the  wounds  of  the  unfortunate,  pour 
ing  in  oil  and  wine,  and  takes  him  to  the  inn 
and  pays  his  reckoning  for  many  days. 
"  Which  of  them,"  says  Jesus,  "  is  related  to 
the  man  that  fell  among  thieves  ? "  They 
said — they  were  forced  to  say — "  I  suppose  it 
was  he  that  showed  mercy  upon  him."  They 
could  not  use  the  word  Samaritan.  Then  said 
Jesus :  "  Go  ye  and  do  likewise.  You  are  neigh 
bors  all;  you  are  brothers  all."  There  are  no 
boundary  lines  between  peoples  and  kindreds 
and  tongues  and  tribes;  there  are  no  narrow 
friths  that  cause  nations  to  abhor  each  other, 
in  the  teachings  of  Jesus  Christ;  for  the 
brotherhood  of  man  is  universal  in  its  scope. 
That  is  the  message  concerning  the  relation 
ship  of  myself  to  my  fellow-man. 

Do  we  believe  that?  Two  thousand  years 
after  it  was  spoken,  ask  Europe  if  it  believes. 
Ask  Germany  and  Austria,  England,  France, 
and  Russia;  ask  Belgium  if  it  believes. 
"  Well,"  comes  the  reply,  "  we  believe  it  in 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  87 

America,  anyhow."  Winston  Churchill  said 
if  we  believed  it,  it  would  be  nitroglycerine  in 
modern  society ;  it  would  blow  the  whole  fabric 
to  pieces  and  change  it  and  turn  it  upside  down. 
Brotherhood !  We  have  but  little  conception  of 
brotherhood.  We  get  together  in  our  churches 
and  it  is  Brother  This  and  Brother  That,  but 
if  we  address  a  member  of  a  neighboring  de 
nomination,  not  of  our  own  particular  little 
section  of  the  great  church  of  Christ,  it  is  Mr. 
This  and  Mrs.  That.  See  how  small  is  the 
comprehension  of  Jesus'  great  idea! 

We  go  into  our  lodges,  we  clasp  hands  and 
give  the  grip,  and  it  is  Brother  This  and 
Brother  That.  But  we  go  outside  into  the 
market-places  and  on  the  stock  exchanges  and 
it  is  Greek  meets  Greek,  diamond  cut  diamond ; 
we  overreach  each  other  in  a  horse  trade  or 
lumber  deal,  or  perhaps  one  would  better  say  a 
motor  transaction  or  a  lumber  deal.  At  least 
such  is  the  case  in  the  lodge  to  which  I  belong. 
How  about  yours? 

There  is  no  topic  upon  which  a  preacher  can 
declaim,  quite  so  popular,  as  the  brotherhood 
of  man.  People  come  up  and  shake  his  hand 
with  varied  comment : — "  That  was  fine.  My 
sentiments  exactly.  You  were  in  fine  form 
today.  I  believe  every  word.  Excellent  ser 
mon."  Then  they  go  back  to  their  unbrotherly 


88  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

practices  on  the  morrow.  How  long,  O  God, 
how  long! 

Do  you  suppose  if  we  believed  in  the  brother 
hood  of  man,  that  there  would  be  any  armies 
facing  each  other  across  the  French  boundary 
line?  Do  you  suppose  if  we  believed  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  there  would  be  any  neces 
sity  of  our  nation's  increasing  its  armament 
this  year  of  grace? 

Do  you  suppose  if  we  believed  in  the  brother 
hood  of  man  there  would  be  any  little  ragged 
newsboys  sleeping,  this  winter,  in  the  old  ash 
barrels  and  rusty  boilers  and  over  the  gratings 
of  the  printing-press  engines  for  a  little 
warmth?  You  say  that  is  an  overdrawn  pic 
ture,  there  are  no  boys  in  such  condition  in  the 
United  States?  You  can  see  them  any  mid 
winter  night  on  the  Bowery  and  Broadway,  on 
Tremont  Street,  State  Street,  Locust  Street,  in 
any  of  our  great  cities, — little  fellows  with 
skin  showing  through  their  torn  pants,  almost 
barefoot,  selling  their  belated  news,  while  the 
snow  comes  down,  at  eleven  and  twelve  o'clock 
at  night.  There  would  be  no  such  thing  as  a 
newspaper  boy  in  all  America  if  we  believed  in 
the  brotherhood  of  man; — unemployed  men 
would  be  selling  the  news  as  they  do  on  the 
other  side  of  the  water;  and  the  boys,  every 
one  of  them,  would  be  in  school  under  a  com- 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  89 

pulsory  education  act  that  compels, — if  we  be 
lieved  in  the  brotherhood  of  man. 

Do  you  suppose,  if  we  believed  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  that  there  would  be  any 
sweatshops  in  our  great  cities  under  the  man 
agement  of  Christian  business  men — any  great 
mills  that  served  as  prison-houses  and  slave- 
grounds  for  little  children?  Do  you  suppose 
there  would  be  hundreds  of  employees  ground 
under  the  heel  of  greed  and  piracy, — if  we  be 
lieved  in  the  brotherhood  of  man? 

Do  you  suppose  that,  if  we  believed  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man,  there  would  be  an  army 
of  tramps  moving  back  and  forth  with  the 
seasons  up  and  down  the  continent,  infesting 
the  right-of-ways  and  farms,  and  making  the 
lives  of  farmers'  wives  miserable?  Ah,  but 
you  say,  "  He  who  will  not  work,  shall  not 
eat."  Yes,  the  old  economic  law,  as  old  as  the 
laws  of  the  Medes  and  the  Persians  and  older, 
will  not  change.  But  certain  it  is  that  every 
man  who  wanted  to  work  would  have  a  fair 
and  square  chance  to  work,  which  certainly  is 
not  the  case  today, — if  we  believed  in  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  But  again  comes  the 
objection :  "  These  things  are  governed  by 
economic  conditions.  You  cannot  idealize  laws 
of  supply  and  demand.  Your  dreamers  of 
brotherhood,  like  Tolstoi,  never  get  anywhere 


90  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

with  their  dreams."  Let  us  believe  enough  in 
Jesus'  great  doctrine,  and  we  shall  get  some 
where  fast  enough,  in  regard  to  supply  and 
demand,  opportunities  to  work,  healthful  con 
ditions  under  which  to  work,  limitations  of 
women's  and  children's  hours  of  labor,  em 
ployers'  liability,  and  even  in  regard  to  so  huge 
a  task  as  internationalism.  Be  assured  of  this, 
we  shall  never  accomplish  these  Herculean  re 
forms  without  the  aid  of  Jesus,  who  set  forth 
the  law  that  lies  at  the  base  of  them. 

Do  you  suppose,  if  we  thoroughly  believed  in 
the  brotherhood  of  man,  there  would  be  any 
dark  corner  of  any  dark  continent  unenlight 
ened  by  the  message  of  the  gospel  of  Jesus  this 
good  year  of  His  grace,  twenty  centuries  after 
the  glad  news  was  uttered?  If  we  believed  in 
the  brotherhood  of  man  we  could  not  go  fast 
enough  to  tell  it  to  the  uttermost  parts  of  the 
earth.  If  we  believed  in  the  brotherhood  of 
man,  would  there  be  any  churchless  parts  of 
our  cities,  while  the  churches  move  out  into 
the  wealthy  and  the  fashionable  and  the  com 
fortable  sections?  If  we  believed  it — but  it  is 
too  great  for  us !  It  will  take  us  another  nine 
teen  centuries,  perhaps,  to  achieve  it,  to  enter 
into  the  A  B  C's  of  this  great  doctrine,  to  enter 
into  the  vestibule  of  the  greatest  thing  in 
the  world,  which  is  love. 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  91 

Once  more,  when  Jesus  came  He  found  men 
perplexed  with  regard  to  the  tie  that  should 
bind  them  back  again  to  God.  He  found  them 
troubled  with  the  world-old  consciousness  of 
their  separation  from  their  God.  Instinctively 
they  felt,  somehow,  that  they  ought  to  be  in 
touch  with  Him,  that  they  ought  to  be  at  one 
with  Him,  but  they  felt  between  Him  and 
them  a  veil  hanging,  the  veil  of  sin.  They  saw 
between  Him  and  them  a  great  yawning  gulf, 
the  gulf  of  sin.  And  this  consciousness  of 
separation  between  Him  and  them  was  the 
keenest  consciousness  that  they  had. 

What  did  Jesus  say  to  them  ?  Said  He :  "  I 
am  the  Way  and  the  Truth  and  the  Life.  No 
man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by  me.  If  ye 
had  known  me  ye  should  have  known  my 
Father  also."  Never  man  spake  like  this  man. 
Other  men  had  said,  not  "  I  am  the  way  back 
to  God";  but  they  had  said,  "If  you  will 
listen  to  me,  if  you  will  follow  my  teachings, 
if  you  will  walk  with  me  in  the  porches  or  the 
groves,  if  you  will  adopt  my  system,  if  you 
will  learn  my  philosophy,  after  twenty,  thirty, 
or  forty  years  of  study,  I  think  perhaps  I  can 
show  you  the  way  of  life."  But  here  is  a  man 
who  did  not  say,  "  I  will  teach  you,  listen  to 
my  words,"  but  who  said :  "  Follow  me.  I  am 


92  THE  CHARMING  RABBI 

the  Way  and  the  Truth  and  the  Life."     No 
man  ever  so  spake. 

No  doubt  there  is  in  every  city,  certainly  in 
the  country  round  about  it,  an  old  homestead 
that  was  a  little  quieter  last  night  than  it  ought 
to  have  been;  there  is  a  vacant  chair  in  front 
of  the  fireplace,  and  a  vacant  chair  at  the  table ; 
there  is  a  room  upstairs  quiet,  echoing  to  no 
footfalls,  unoccupied  through  the  night;  there 
is,  in  that  room,  no  doubt,  an  old  walnut  bed 
stead,  an  old  marble-topped  washstand  and 
dresser;  there  is  the  counterpane,  kept  smooth 
and  clean  and  uncrumpled  by  a  mother's  tender 
hands.  Downstairs  in  front  of  that  fireplace, 
last  night,  was  an  old  father  whose  heart  was 
empty,  yearning,  void,  and  breaking ;  while  out 
yonder  across  the  Father  of  Waters,  across  the 
prairies,  on  the  ranch,  in  the  lumber  camp,  in 
the  great  city,  was  a  young  boy  who  said :  "  I 
will  not  go  back  home.  My  father  does  not 
love  me  any  more;  and  I  do  not  love  him  any 
more;  and  I  will  not  go  back  home."  If  only 
somebody  could  go  to  that  boy  with  the  truth, 
could  say  to  him,  "  Your  old  father  does  love 
you;  your  father's  heart  is  breaking  for  you; 
come  back  home ;  I  will  be  the  way  home  for 
you  to  your  father's  house."  Now,  what  is 
that  but  the  story  of  the  lost,  or  prodigal  son, 
the  message  of  our  Master  ?  Nobody  else  ever 


THE  CHARMING  RABBI  93 

talked  like  that ;  nobody  ever  struck  that  chord 
in  human  nature ;  and  it  has  wended  its  way  to 
the  hearts  of  men  more  than  any  story  that 
ever  was  told.  Why  ?  Because  it  is  so  true  to 
the  universal  experiences  of  men.  Because  we 
know  that  you  and  I  are  that  lost  son  out  on 
the  desert,  in  the  purlieus  and  slums  of  the  city, 
refusing  to  go  back  home. 

There  is  the  word  of  life — to  whom  else 
can  we  go  ?  Here  is  the  message  of  Jesus,  who 
solved  for  us  the  problems  of  existence  and 
completed  the  great  triangle  of  relations,  the 
links  of  the  endless  chain; — the  Fatherhood  of 
God  to  man,  the  brotherhood  of  man  to  his 
fellow-man,  and  Himself  the  atoning  power 
that  leads  us  back  home  again  to  the  Father's 
house. 


V 
THE  UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

IT  is  aspiration  that  saves  men.  The 
priestly  function  of  Jesus  lies  in  His  power 
both  to  create  and  satisfy  longings.  He  is 
spoken  of  as  a  priest  after  a  mysterious  order. 
The  mystery  lies  in  the  fact  that  He  has  not  to 
do  with  stole  and  mitre,  with  swinging  censer, 
clouded  incense,  burning  candle,  shimmering 
drapery  and  lights,  tolling  bells  or  forms  and 
symbols  of  any  kind ;  but  He  has  to  do  with  the 
untraceable  labyrinths  of  the  inner  life.  It  is 
not  in  outward  sestheticism,  however  compel 
ling,  that  He  presides  as  priest.  There  is  no 
beauty  of  this  sort  that  we  should  desire  Him. 
But  it  is  far  beneath  all  visible  architectural 
or  ceremonial  effects,  in  the  elemental,  ethereal, 
mystery-laden  atmosphere,  where  the  wind 
breatheth  where  it  listeth,  that  He  stands  to 
minister. 

We  used  to  hear  much  of  "  Justification  by 

Faith."     Martin  Luther  set  a  continent  free 

with  the  power  of  that  great  phrase.     Now  it 

has,  to  the  ears  of  most  women  and  men,  an 

94 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL     95 

academic,  a  theological,  altogether  a  rather 
metallic  sound.  But  justification  by  faith  is 
a  very  much  simpler  thing  than,  at  first  blush, 
it  seems.  In  St.  Paul's  mind,  who  was  the 
father  of  the  phrase,  it  simply  means  that  God 
takes  the  will  for  the  deed.  We  are  accounted 
righteous  when  we  are  not  righteous,  just 
because  we  look  up  to  God,  wishing  that  we 
were  righteous.  We  are  children  who  did  not 
mean  to  do  wrong,  but  meant  to  do  right.  We 
love  our  Father  and  we  trust  Him,  so  we  come 
to  Him  in  loving  trust  saying :  "  Father,  when 
I  do  wrong,  I  do  not  mean  to  do  it.  I  do  not 
want  to  be  bad.  I  want  to  be  good."  Then 
the  Father  does  just  as  a  father  would  be  ex 
pected  to  do.  He  forgives  and  He  takes  the 
aspiration  for  the  fulfilment,  the  will  for  the 
deed.  That  is  justification  by  faith. 

He  is  a  priest,  then,  who  inspires  aspiration, 
directs  aspiration,  and  satisfies  aspiration.  He 
presides  at  the  bed  of  new  birth,  by  the  cradle 
of  the  soul,  and  listens  to  the  first  cry  of  de 
sire  to  live.  Furthermore,  changing  to  another 
of  His  figures,  that  is  the  highest  priest,  who 
pierces  deepest  into  human  hearts,  finds  the 
imprisoned  springs  of  desire  for  life,  breaks 
up  the  rocky  strata,  sets  free  the  pure  water, 
brings  it  to  the  top,  and  sends  it  out  into  proper 


96      UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

channels.  He  it  is  who  finds  for  us  our  own 
fountains  of  living  water,  springing  up  within 
us  unto  everlasting  life. 

Humanity  needs  not  fewer  desires  but  more 
desires  and  right  desires.  A  social  worker 
among  the  submerged  seeks  not  only  to  satisfy 
wants  but  to  create  them.  Herein  lies  the  sal 
vation  of  the  discouraged,  slothful,  contented 
pauper.  So  the  priest  comes  to  the  dead  in 
trespasses  and  sins,  the  opium-smoker  of  con 
tent,  and  shakes  him  by  the  shoulder,  raises 
him  from  his  death,  saves  him  to  his  life. 
Jesus  possesses  this  priestly,  this  atoning 
power.  He  paid  for  it  a  great  price ;  He  paid 
for  it  His  life. 

This  power  of  the  priest  is  too  precious  a 
thing  to  be  easily  bought.  No  man  can  have 
it  by  inheritance,  by  favor,  or  by  money  pur 
chase.  It  is  obtained  only  by  the  shedding  of 
blood.  In  proportion  as  one  gives  himself,  in 
that  proportion  only  shall  he  get  it.  Except  a 
grain  of  wheat  fall  into  the  ground  and  die,  it 
abideth  alone.  The  priest  must  shed  his  blood, 
break  his  heart,  die  on  his  cross,  be  lifted  up, 
before  he  draw  men  upward  along  the  slant 
ing  path  of  the  soul.  In  that  Jesus  thus  gave 
Himself  as  no  other  before  Him  or  since  ever 
gave  himself,  lies  His  patent  to  the  High- 
priesthood,  His  mysterious  majesty  in  the  vast 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL     97 

nave  of  the  inner  life,  His  atonement  for  the 
sins  of  the  world. 

Men  have  long  since  become  impatient  with 
academic  attempts  of  schoolmen  to  solve  the 
mystery  of  the  atonement  of  Jesus  Christ  and 
to  put  it  into  hard-and-fast  definition.  To  the 
man  in  the  street,  the  idea  that  God  sub 
stituted  Christ  for  man  and  visited  punishment 
upon  the  head  of  innocence,  in  place  of  guilt, 
is  revolting,  shocking,  abhorrent.  It  offends 
the  sense  of  justice.  No  less  does  the  sugges 
tion  that  God  paid  Jesus  as  a  ransom  to  the 
devil,  a  sop  to  Cerberus,  offend  the  modern 
man's  sense  of  commercial  ethics.  He  must 
first  be  convinced  that  there  is  a  devil,  outside 
himself.  Nor  again  does  the  notion  of  a  scape 
goat  made  of  Christ  for  the  sake  of  vindicating 
the  dignity  of  an  outraged  law — outraged  by 
man  and  not  by  Christ — fit  in  with  his  ideas  of 
legal  equity.  You  cannot  content  him  with 
such  statements.  He  will  either  listen  to  you 
in  doubting  silence,  or  like  Gallic  will  shut 
his  ears  and,  caring  for  none  of  these  things,  go 
off  quietly  to  indifferent  sleep  in  the  midst  of 
your  harangue. 

But  if  the  man  of  the  world  today  is  told 
that  the  atonement  is  a  glowing  mystery,  too 
deep  for  human  fathoming,  let  alone  for  human 
defining;  that  it  seems  to  run  like  a  beautiful 


98      UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

blood-red  warp  through  the  fabric  of  all  law, 
natural,  human,  and  divine;  that  Jesus,  so  far 
from  being  an  exception,  was  the  most  per 
fect  exemplification  of  this  wonderfully  diffi 
cult  and  intricate  law;  your  average  man  will 
sit  up  and  listen,  and  possibly  begin  an  intel 
lectual  upward  slant  that  in  eternity  may  reach 
its  goal.  Perhaps  his  cogitation  on  Atonement 
may  lead  him  along  like  this: 

All  life  and  all  progress  in  the  world  is 
at  the  expense  of  sacrifice  and  death  on  the 
part  of  some  one  or  many.  Mere  physical 
existence  can  only  be  begun  and  maintained  as 
the  result  of  a  rapid,  repeated,  widespread 
death.  Not  only  we,  but  all  creatures  rise  on 
stepping-stones  of  others'  dead  selves  to  higher 
things.  The  whole  creation  groaneth  and  tra- 
vaileth  in  pain  together  until  now,  in  giving 
birth  to  the  next  day  and  the  next  generation, 
and  the  next  era.  To  put  it  even  on  the  lowest 
plane,  it  is  not  merely  certain  rudimentary 
forms  of  life  that  make  their  culminating  act 
the  act  of  reproduction,  and  with  this  climax 
of  their  careers  pass  off  the  stage  of  the  living 
forever;  but  even  the  highest  type  of  life — 
man — in  giving  life  to  his  kind  that  are  to 
follow  him,  in  nurturing  them,  guarding  them, 
rearing  them,  voluntarily  embraces  decay  and 
death,  if  gradual,  yet  no  less  sure. 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL     99 

This  sacrifice  of  life  that  other  life  may  fol 
low — higher,  better  life  or  else  the  universe  is 
all  out  of  gear — is  partly  involuntary  and 
partly  voluntary.  The  struggle  for  life  has 
its  foil  in  the  struggle  for  the  life  of  others. 
The  pouring  out  of  blood  for  the  sustenance 
of  the  beasts  that  prey  has  its  opposite  motive 
in  the  pouring  out  of  their  hearts'  rich  tide 
by  the  mothers  of  the  race  that  prays.  The 
awful  war  of  extermination  that  rages  in  the 
thick  jungles  of  the  tiniest  grass  blades  as  well 
as  in  the  greatest  forests  and  mountain  fast 
nesses  claims  not  more  victims  than  the  altars 
of  voluntary  vicarious  sacrifice  upon  which 
the  parents  of  all  men  and  many  creatures 
willingly  and  gladly  lay  down  their  lives. 

The  same  principle  applies,  does  it  not,  in 
matters  higher  than  mere  physical  existence? 
There  is  no  advancement  in  human  thought, 
no  growth  of  any  great  telling  movement 
among  men  except  at  a  cost  of  life.  Advance 
comes  by  friction,  opposition,  battle ;  and  these 
waste  life.  The  scholar  burns  out  his  life 
with  his  midnight  oil.  The  preacher — if  he  be 
really  a  preacher — dies  just  so  much  upon  the 
cross,  every  time  he  ascends  his  pulpit.  The 
statesman — if  he  be  one,  and  not  a  mere  poli 
tician — gives  his  life  for  great  ideas  just  as 
really  through  his  toil  as  the  soldier  in  his 


100    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

marches  and  his  battles.  The  man  of  affairs, 
that  deserts  may  be  watered  and  conquered, 
roads  built,  the  earth  peopled  and  prospered, 
gives  his  life  whatever  the  motive,  either  in 
midnight  journeys,  or  meetings,  or  wastes  it  in 
the  confinement  of  an  office  that  is  like  a  cell. 
The  world  of  thought  grows,  develops,  but 
at  what  a  tremendous  cost  of  human  life! 

In  the  same  fashion,  may  it  be,  is  it  not  true, 
that  in  the  world  of  spirit  growth  comes  only 
in  the  train  of  death?  That  souls  may  be  up 
lifted,  cleansed,  exalted,  redeemed,  some  one 
or  many  must  die.  Indeed,  we  have  seen  many 
die  in  the  ages  past  for  just  this  purpose.  A 
moral  vicarious  sacrifice  needs  little  illustra 
tion  besides  our  own  memories  of  a  short  but 
heroic  history.  So  far  we  can  understand. 
But  is  it  not  possible  that  just  at  this  point  en 
ters  the  larger  sacrifice  which  we  cannot  under 
stand — a  mysterious  sacrifice,  a  death  de 
manded  in  the  very  nature  of  things  spiritual, 
that  higher  life,  eternal  life,  sin-free  life  might 
be  the  portion  of  the  race  ?  The  necessity  for 
such  a  sacrifice  is  no  more  mysterious,  no 
more  awful,  than  the  necessity  for  the  whole 
sale  slaughter  and  the  multitudinous  self- 
immolation  that  is  going  on  every  hour  in  the 
world. 

No  doubt  the  next  solution  of  this  problem 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL   101 

is  to  be  somewhere  along  this  line.  But  is  the 
solution  reached  when  the  analogy  of  Christ's 
life  and  work  to  that  of  other  great  martyrs 
is  traced?  We  all  believe  in  these  days,  and 
perhaps  it  is  safe  to  say,  that  Christ  died  to 
save  man  from  man,  not  man  from  God — social 
redemption ;  that  Christ  died  to  save  man  from 
self,  not  man  from  Satan — individual  redemp 
tion  ;  that  Christ  died  to  save  man  from  sin,  not 
man  from  hell — immediate  redemption;  but  is 
it  safe  to  say  that  the  age  is  to  be  content  with 
the  statement  that  He  died,  or  for  that  mat 
ter,  lived,  for  these  ends,  only  as  Huss,  Savona 
rola,  Socrates,  or  Daniel  lived  and  died  for 
man's  redemption? 

No,  there  is  something  greater  here,  and 
more  mysterious;  greater  as  the  degree  of  dif 
ference  between  Him  and  them  amounted  to  a 
difference  in  kind;  more  mysterious  as  the 
express  revelation  of  God  in  Him,  the  hatred 
of  immaculate  purity  for  sin,  the  suffering  of 
untainted  goodness  in  an  atmosphere  of  taint 
and  stain,  all  are  more  or  less  mysterious  to 
the  contaminated  vision  of  sinful  men. 

Jesus,  in  His  sacrifice,  must  meet  the  crav 
ing  of  the  heart  of  man  after  his  God.  Men 
had  always  felt  that  somehow,  of  right,  they 
belonged  to  God ;  they  were  akin  to  Him,  and 
knew  it.  But  between  Him  and  them  they 


102    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

were  conscious  of  a  veil  hanging,  the  veil  of 
their  own  weaving,  the  veil  of  sin.  Between 
Him  and  them  they  saw  a  great  gulf  fixed, 
the  gulf  of  their  own  digging,  the  gulf  of 
sin.  How  to  rend  that  veil,  to  bridge  that 
gulf,  was  the  one  great  problem — and  still  is — 
to  all  mankind.  The  consciousness  of  sin  is 
the  one  universal  consciousness;  and  the  ques 
tion  of  its  cure  is  the  one  everlasting  question 
in  the  world.  » 

Striving  to  answer  that  question,  men  had 
sacrificed  lamb  after  lamb,  bullock  after  bul 
lock,  hecatomb  after  hecatomb,  till  their  tem 
ples  had  run  red  with  blood,  and  yet,  like  Lady 
Macbeth, — crying,  "  Out  damned  spot," — they 
had  never  been  able  to  wash  out  the  foul  stain 
upon  their  hands.  They  had  a  consciousness  of 
their  God  and  their  God's  hatred  of  sin,  and 
yet,  though  they  had  erected  priesthoods  to 
intercede  with  Him,  they  had  never  been  able 
to  arrive  certainly  at  a  sense  of  forgiveness, 
which  was,  and  perhaps  still  is,  the  end  and  aim 
of  all  religious  service.  For  one  thing,  they 
were  uncertain  as  to  the  character  of  their 
God,  and  His  attitude  toward  rebellious  chil 
dren. 

Such  being  the  state  of  affairs,  God,  seeing 
it,  felt  the  need  of  a  solution  for  man  of  this 
tragic  question,  and  as  a  means  to  this  end,  of 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    103 

a  full  revelation  to  man  of  His  own  heart — 
its  hatred  toward  and  horror  of  sin,  its  love 
for  and  pity  toward  man.  So,  when  the  fulness 
of  time  had  come,  when  man  had  reached  such 
maturity  as  would  comprehend,  in  some  meas 
ure,  His  self -revelation,  the  incarnation  fol 
lowed.  God  chose  to  reveal  His  qualities  not 
in  a  book,  not  in  the  words  of  prophets  and 
teachers,  not  in  a  system  of  theological  state 
ments,  not  in  the  works  of  nature.  He  had 
already  shadowily  revealed  Himself  in  all 
these  ways;  and  to  individual  minds,  here  and 
there,  these  revelations  had  been  intelligible. 
But  to  the  great  multitude  of  men  there  is  but 
one  book  legible  and  comprehensible,  and  that 
is  man.  Everybody  could  read  a  man's  life, 
everybody  could  read  a  man's  face — so  inter 
esting,  so  fascinating  is  man  to  humanity. 
Hence,  when  God  would  send  His  final  mes 
sage  to  humanity,  He  must  write  in  this  final 
and  universal  language  of  mankind — a  man. 
He  did  so.  He  said  to  the  world :  "  This  man 
is  Myself.  What  He  is  I  am.  He  does  al 
ways  the  things  that  please  Me.  He  and  I  are 
one.  He  that  hath  seen  Him  hath  seen  Me." 
Having  thus  revealed  Himself  fully  to  men, 
He  proceeded  to  show  through  this  human 
medium  His  attitude  toward  sin.  Never  in  all 
the  world  has  there  been  such  rebuke  of  sin  as 


104    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

in  the  mere  presence  of  Jesus  Christ  upon  the 
earth.  Not  the  broken  tables  of  the  law,  not 
the  fiery  serpents  in  the  wilderness,  not  the 
deluge,  nor  the  ashes  of  Gomorrah,  have  ever 
carried  the  conviction  of  God's  unalterable  and 
inappeasable  hostility  to  guilt  as  has  the  quiet, 
gentle,  calm  dignity  of  Jesus'  sinlessness.  The 
word  of  God  is  here  heard  most  convincingly, 
not  in  the  earthquake,  not  in  the  fire  and 
tempest,  but  in  the  still,  small  voice  of  the  in 
carnate  God.  His  presence,  like  that  of  the 
Holy  Spirit,  nay,  which  is  identical  with  that 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  convicts  the  world  of  sin 
and  judgment. 

And  yet,  along  with  this  message  of  hatred 
toward  sin,  comes  the  major  strain,  the  domi 
nant  theme,  in  the  symphony  of  Jesus'  life,  of 
God's  overflowing,  inextinguishable  love  for 
man — the  sinner.  Individuals  heard  the  strain 
— oh,  so  clearly — the  rich  young  ruler,  the 
woman  of  Samaria,  Zaccheus  the  publican, 
Simon  Peter,  the  poor  drab  in  the  Temple — 
these  and  scores  besides  heard  the  new  note, 
the  song  of  love  and  forgiveness,  "  Neither  do 
I  condemn  thee,  go  and  sin  no  more."  Here 
was  no  consuming  fire  of  wrath,  here  was  no 
freezing  ice  of  impenetrable  sinlessness,  lofty, 
stark,  aloof.  Here  was  gentleness,  long-suf 
fering,  mercy,  love.  This  was  the  heart  of 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    105 

God.  Individuals  caught  the  message,  the  na 
tion  caught  it,  and  slowly  the  nations  catch  it, 
too. 

But  this  goodness,  this  tenderness,  this  sin- 
lessness,  this  embodied  mercy,  must  suffer  in 
the  presence  of  sin  fulness.  The  very  word 
long-suffering  shows  that  we  have  felt  some 
inkling  of  the  pains  of  God.  We  have  suffered, 
too,  have  we  not,  in  some  feeble  attempts  at  a 
purely  moral  redemption.  We  have  wrestled  in 
soul  with  an  erring  brother  in  the  bonds  of  sin, 
with  a  wilful  and  headstrong  child,  with  a 
criminal  wretch  struggling  to  be  free  of  the 
shackles  of  long  habit.  We,  now  and  then, 
have  made  vicarious  atonement,  at  least  in  its 
elements,  so  far  as  the  simple  moral  motive 
extends.  But  we  are  not  God.  We  did  not 
make  man.  We  are  not  responsible  for  his 
well-being,  his  on-going,  in  short  his  redemp 
tion.  We,  therefore,  cannot  understand  the 
full  agony  of  creative  grief  at  the  moral  mal 
adjustment  of  the  creature. 

"We  do  not  know,  we  cannot  tell, 
The  pains  he  had  to  bear." 

If  we  suffer  in  the  throes  of  a  rebirth  for  some 
friend,  parishioner,  or  relative,  struggling 
loose  from  a  wicked  past,  what  must  have  been 
the  agonies  of  Gethsemane,  and  of  the  hours 
upon  the  cross  ? 


106    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

Let  us  not  imply  that  this  symapthetic  moral 
passion  is  all  there  was  to  the  Atonement.  It 
is  about  all  we  can  understand,  it  may  be ;  but 
mystery  is  a  legitimate  part  of  religion;  and 
because  we  cannot  understand  more  than  this 
is  no  reason  why  we  should  affirm  that  there  is 
no  more.  Indeed,  we  cannot  understand  why 
there  should  be  pain  and  passion  in  mere  physi 
cal  birth,  in  intellectual  birth,  in  moral  birth. 
Why,  then,  is  it  a  thing  incredible  that  we  can 
not  analyze,  systematize,  theologize  plainly, 
mathematically,  dogmatically,  this  mysterious 
process  of  redemption? 

The  time  has  gone  by,  has  it  not,  when  the 
ologians  presume  God  to  scan,  when  they  em 
ploy  with  smug  certitude  the  phrases,  "  scheme 
of  redemption,"  "  plan  of  salvation,"  and  the 
like.  We  have  come  to  feel  that  the  scheme,  if 
there  is  one,  is  too  stellar  in  its  scope;  the 
plan,  if  there  is  one,  is  too  nearly  like  the 
Pleiades  in  proportions  for  us  to  outline  with 
a  geometrical  exactness,  in  the  size  of  a  printed 
page. 

That  "  God  hath  His  mysteries  of  grace, 
ways  that  we  cannot  tell,"  we  firmly  believe. 
That  He  has  thus  dealt,  in  the  profundity  of 
His  wisdom,  with  the  problem  of  sin,  we  have 
no  doubt.  That  somehow  the  sufferings  of 
Christ  were  necessary  to  accomplish  His  gi- 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    107 

gantic  purpose  is  altogether  in  line  with  the 
best  scientific  thought  of  today.  That  those 
sufferings  fulfilled  something  more  than  the 
purpose  of  erecting  a  beautiful  moral  ideal  of 
self-forgetfulness,  heroism,  courage,  renuncia 
tion,  is  the  conviction  of  this  present  age  and 
of  the  best  thought  of  the  age  just  coming  on. 
What  that  purpose  was  we  can,  no  doubt,  do 
little  more  than  hint ;  but  that  hint,  in  harmony 
with  the  ascent  of  man,  finds  its  analogue  in 
the  struggle  for  the  life  of  others  which  is  one 
of  the  leading  themes  in  the  natural  science,  so 
cial  science,  political  science  of  the  time. 

Poets  sometimes  reach  truer  conclusions  than 
philosophers,  as  hearts  sometimes  are  more 
nearly  infallible  than  heads ;  and  it  is  a  modern 
American,  the  editor  of  one  of  our  leading 
magazines,  who  sings: 

"  Subtlest  thought  shall  fail  and  learning  falter, 
Churches  change,  forms  perish,  systems  go; 
But  our  deep  human  needs  they  will  not  alter; 
Christ  no  after  age  shall  e'er  outgrow. 
Yea,  amen,   O  changeless  one,  thou  only 
Art  life's  guide  and  spiritual  goal, 
Thou   the   light  across  the   dark  vale  only, 
Thou  the  eternal  haven  of  the  soul." 

So  then,  it  is  by  the  magnetic  person  of 
Jesus,  together  with  His  atoning  love  and 
sacrifice,  that  man  is  instigated  to  aspiration 
which  is  the  hope  of  his  salvation.  The  divine 


108    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

thing  about  man  is  that  he  looks  up.  This 
differentiates  him  from  the  brute.  So  far  as 
our  observation  can  extend,  the  creatures  all 
look  downward.  Perhaps  some  foolish  dog  oc 
casionally  may  toss  his  muzzle  up  to  bay  the 
moon,  but  for  the  most  part  he  noses  about 
among  the  gutters  and  the  rabbit-hutches.  Oc 
casionally  an  eagle  may  stare  at  the  sun,  but 
generally  his  gaze  is  turned  downward  after 
his  prey.  It  is  only  man  that  stands  upright, 
his  "  face  turned  from  the  clod,"  looks  the 
sky  in  the  face,  looks  up  to  the  hills  whence 
cometh  his  help.  It  seems  to  be  only  man  that 
is  capable  of  aspiration. 

The  holiest  voices  that  come  to  him,  more 
over,  are  the  voices  that  bid  him  look  up, 
aspire,  be  not  content  with  aught  he  has  done 
or  that  he  is.  The  voice  of  the  breeze  that  rus 
tles  in  the  spring  silences  of  the  wide  prairie, 
the  voice  of  the  north  wind  that  howls  about 
his  home  in  winter,  the  still  small  voice  of  con 
science,  the  great  chorus  of  voices  in  earth, 
air,  sea,  and  sky,  or  in  the  heavy  hum  of  men, 
from  the  voice  of  the  babe  or  the  brook  that 
babbles  to  the  great  thunderous  voice  that 
comes  from  between  the  Cherubim, — all  bid 
him  look  up,  aspire,  be  divinely  discontent. 

For  what  one  honestly  and  earnestly  aspires 
to  be,  that  in  some  sense  he  is.  Our  real  selves, 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    109 

thank  God,  are  our  better  selves.  It  is  St. 
Paul  himself,  author  of  the  doctrine  of  justifi 
cation  by  faith,  or  salvation  by  aspiration,  who 
reaches  the  high  conclusion  that  when  he  falls, 
"  it  is  no  longer  I  that  do  it,  but  sin  which 
dwelleth  in  me."  So  far  from  this  idea  being 
a  license  to  him,  for  continuous  sinning,  miti 
gated  by  fatuous  aspiring,  it  becomes  the  means 
of  throwing  out  sin,  taking  in  God,  working 
out  his  own  salvation,  for  "  it  is  God  which 
worketh  in  us."  His  desire  for  God  it  is  which 
saves  him  at  the  last,  God  in  Jesus  Christ. 

Suppose  one  does  fail  of  his  aspirations? 
Suppose  hell  is  paved  with  good  resolutions 
broken  ?  Says  rough  old  Carlyle,  "  Up  with 
the  fragments,  ye  sluggards,  and  break  the 
devil's  head  with  them."  It  is  better  to  have 
resolved  and  broken  than  never  to  have  re 
solved  at  all.  And  it  is  better  to  resolve  anew 
than  to  sink  down  into  discouragement  and 
shiftless  moral  sloth.  Get  up  and  look  up. 

So  it  is  a  mistake,  is  it  not,  to  identify  re 
ligion  with  moral  achievement,  as  so  many 
liberals  and  ethical  culturists  of  our  day  have 
done?  Religion  is  not  education  in  ethical 
principles,  not  education  of  any  kind.  True 
religion  does  not  necessarily  advance  with  in 
tellectual  training.  "  By  intellect  alone  shall 
no  man  storm  heaven;  only  the  great  in  heart 


110    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

can  do  this,  the  passion-driven  and  the  world- 
weary."  Smug  righteousness,  or  righteous 
ness  that  is  not  smug,  is  not  synonymous  with 
religion.  The  rebellious  and  well-nigh  un 
tamable  will  may  go  hand  in  hand  with  a  pro 
foundly  loving  heart.  Your  lad  hardest  to 
manage  may  be  the  one  who  loves  home,  father, 
mother,  friends,  better  than  the  exemplary  son. 
Esau  is  often  a  greater  heart  than  Jacob. 

Here  is  where  cold,  lineally  exact,  ethical 
culture  has  failed  to  lay  hold  on  the  man  in 
the  street.  He  is  conscious  of  imperfection,  of 
crooked  lines  and  marred  surfaces  in  his  life 
and  conduct.  He  struggles,  loves,  aspires ;  but 
also  falls,  misses  the  mark,  goes  under.  He 
wants  a  religion  of  aspiration,  of  hope  for  the 
imperfect,  of  warmth  and  love,  of  nutriment 
for  the  hungry  and  thirsty  after  righteousness. 
Sometimes,  with  all  his  blemishes,  the  man  of 
the  world  so-called — man  in  the  street,  is  pref 
erable — is  more  profoundly  religious,  loving 
God  better,  than  the  ethically  exact.  To  teach 
him  that  God  does  not  love  him  and  want  him 
unless  and  until  he  is  good,  is  to  teach  the 
wayward  lad  that  his  Mother's  heart  has  grown 
cold,  to  pull  down  his  universe  about  his  ears, 
to  send  him  hopeless  out  into  the  wreck  of 
worlds  and  farther  from  his  Father's  home. 

Let  us  guard,  again,  this  idea  of  salvation  by 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    111 

aspiration  from  the  charge  that  it  in  anywise 
compromises  with  or  condones  wrongdoing. 
We  are  not  to  continue  in  sin  that  grace  may 
abound.  But  it  does  insist  that  there  is  hope 
for  the  imperfect,  there  is  patience  with  the 
weak,  there  is  understanding  of  the  frailties  of 
men,  there  is  recognition  of  the  desire  to  be 
good  and  persevering  determination  on  the  part 
of  the  Father-Mother  God  to  love  the  erring 
son  back  to  the  home  of  the  soul. 

Jesus  once  said :  "  The  light  of  the  body  is 
the  eye.  If  therefore  thine  eye  be  single,  thy 
whole  body  shall  be  full  of  light."  It  is  a 
pathetically  beautiful  thing  that  the  passage 
had  fascination  for  George  Mattheson,  the 
blind  preacher  of  Edinborough,  author  of  the 
hymn,  "  O  love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go."  Con 
cerning  it,  he  makes  this  comment :  "  Our  Lord 
says  that  when  a  man  looks  at  the  sunshine 
it  is  not  only  his  eye  that  is  affected,  his  whole 
body  is  influenced  by  the  light.  His  pulse  is 
quickened,  his  blood  is  accelerated,  his  step 
is  lightened,  his  arm  is  strengthened,  his  voice 
is  vivified.  Even  so  Christ  says  that  in  the 
moral  world  everything  depends  on  what  a  man 
looks  at — his  ideal.  He  says  that  the  great 
question  is,  'What  is  that  picture  of  heroism 
which  you  have  set  before  your  inward  eye? ' 
He  exclaims,  in  effect : '  It  is  no  use  to  lay  down 


112    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

rules  of  morality.  What  is  your  model  of  per 
fection,  your  ideal  of  beauty,  your  standard  of 
excellence? — everything  depends  on  that.' ' 

Jesus  the  great  high  priest,  who  trains  men 
19  the  upward  vision,  here  means  not  that  one 
should  have  only  a  single  eye,  but  that  his 
eyes  should  be  single  in  his  vision ;  not  that  one 
should  have  but  a  single  idea,  but  that  one 
should  have  a  single  ideal ;  not  that  one  should 
be  possessed  of  one  only  thought,  but  that  one 
should  have  only  one  dominating  and  all-con 
trolling  thought  and  purpose.  "  The  world 
needs  not  narrow  men,  but  broad  men  sharp 
ened  to  a  point." 

The  Master  was  here  talking  to  a  nation  of 
a  strangely  double  vision.  The  Hebrews  had 
a  wonderful  genius  for  religion,  but  at  the 
same  time  an  eye  to  the  main  chance.  Jesus 
said  to  them,  "  Ye  cannot  serve  God  and  Mam 
mon."  They  were  attempting  to  look  up  with 
one  eye  and  down  with  the  other.  Their 
vision  was  consequently  blurred.  It  was  as  if 
the  optic  nerve  were  injured,  as  if  a  blow  had 
been  delivered  on  the  head,  as  if  strong  liquor 
had  made  the  eyes  work  at  cross  purposes  and 
not  in  unison.  No  man,  then  or  now,  could 
make  a  dominant  purpose  of  God  and  money 
at  the  same  time.  One  or  the  other  must  be 
chief.  One  or  the  other  must  be  subservient. 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    113 

No  man  can  make  God  and  anything  else  at 
the  same  time  his  dominant  aim,  aspiration, 
vision.  Our  God  is  a  jealous  God,  not  because 
He  wants  or  needs  aught  for  Himself;  but 
because  of  the  optic  laws  of  the  soul.  He  is 
jealous  for  us  to  look  up  where  He  is,  Our 
Father;  for  that  is  health  to  the  eye,  salva 
tion  to  the  soul. 

What  one  tends  to  look  upon,  that  he  tends 
to  become,  for  the  light  of  the  whole  life  is 
the  eye.  Watch  what  a  man  gazes  upon  most 
intently,  and  you  can  tell  what  is  in  the  man. 
Take  him  into  an  art  museum,  and  the  paint 
ings  or  the  statues  upon  which  his  eye  first  falls 
and  longest  lingers  will  be  index  to  the  life 
within  him.  Take  him  into  crowds  of  men 
and  women  and  observe  whither  his  eye  wan 
ders  and  where  it  fixes,  and  you  will  know 
something  of  the  character  of  light  that  is  in 
him.  Take  him  into  Old  World  cities  and 
countries  by  hovel  and  palace,  river  and  canal, 
sphinx  and  sarcophagus,  crowded  thorough 
fare  and  mountain  road,  and  by  watching  the 
bent  of  his  eye  you  may  know  the  chief  in 
terest  of  the  man. 

There  never  was  a  truer  story  than  Haw 
thorne's  tale  of  the  Great  Stone  Face.  What 
the  little  lad  saw  in  the  craggy  countenance, 
the  idealization  projected  upon  the  retina  of 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

his  soul,  that  by  degrees  and  through  the  years 
the  lad,  grown  to  man,  became.  Devoted  hus 
bands  and  wives,  through  the  passage  of  time, 
and  looking  upon  the  same  things,  grow  to  look 
alike.  The  pictures  in  the  fireplace  stamp 
themselves  in  duplicate  upon  their  characters. 
So,  the  person  of  Jesus,  through  long  years 
of  contemplation,  passes  into  the  form  of  the 
beholder,  and  we  are  transformed  into  His 
image  from  glory  unto  glory.  "  Go  and  look 
thou  upon  the  face  of  Christ,"  was  the  best 
possible  comment  of  one  medieval  painter  upon 
the  Saviour's  portrait  done  by  another.  Go 
and  look  thou  on  the  face  of  Christ,  is  the 
friendliest  criticism  that  one  man  can  make 
on  another's  life. 

Nor  is  the  priestly  ministry  of  Jesus  limited, 
nor  His  atonement  completed,  in  a  beautiful 
ethical  ideal  for  men  to  follow  and  even  to 
become.  It  is  more  than  that.  There  was  and 
is  about  Him  a  spiritual  galvanism,  as  inex 
plicable  as  electricity,  which  crackles  and  snaps 
and  burns  in  the  life  it  touches.  He  had  only 
to  say  to  the  fishermen,  "  Follow  me,"  and  they 
forsook  nets  and  boats,  homes  and  kindred,  to 
follow  in  His  train.  He  had  only  to  sit  for  a 
brief  time  at  the  table  of  a  publican,  and 
Zaccheus,  that  hard,  rich,  grasping  man  of  the 
world,  kindled  into  new  life,  saying:  "  Master, 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    115 

from  this  time  forth,  I  give  half  my  goods  to 
feed  the  poor,  and  if  I  have  wrongfully  exacted 
of  any  man,  I  restore  him  fourfold."  No  won 
der  the  Master  answered  to  this  newborn  aspi 
ration,  "  This  day  has  salvation  come  to  this 
house."  He  had  but  to  hold  a  few  moments  of 
night-talk  with  the  Pharisee,  and  Nicodemus 
desires  to  be  born  again,  and  for  aught  we 
know  he  may  have  been.  He  has  but  to  speak 
a  few  sentences  to  the  woman  at  the  well,  who 
dared  not  come  when  other  women  came  at 
evening  to  carry  water  home,  and  she  is  re 
newed,  convicted,  pardoned,  transformed,  as 
she  rushes  into  the  city  in  the  eyes  of  all  be 
holders,  crying :  "  Come,  see  a  man  that  told 
me  all  things  that  ever  I  did.  Is  not  this  the 
Christ?" 

It  is  not  needful,  moreover,  to  go  so  far  away 
in  distance  or  in  time,  to  find  those  whom  con 
tact  with  Him  has  made  clean  and  whole  and 
strong  and  fine.  "  Thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee," 
is  as  powerful  a  word  from  His  lips  as  it  ever 
was,  and  many  hear  it  and  are  glad  and  are  de 
livered.  Many  Gideons  upon  the  railways  of 
our  West,  many  John  Marks  in  our  colleges 
and  universities,  many  laymen  who  stand  hum 
bly  keeping  doors  in  His  house  and  for  His 
sake,  many  women  bearing  the  dreary  drudger 
ies  of  office  and  kitchen  and  home,  millions 


116    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

have  been  given  heart  of  hope,  strength  of 
hand  and  limb,  sight  of  eye  by  the  mysterious 
Priest. 

Goethe  once  cried  out :  "  My  soul  has  feelers 
and  not  eyes!  O  that  I  could  get  eyes  and 
look !  "  And  as  he  lay  a-dying,  with  his  wan 
ing  breath,  he  whispered,  "  Mehr  licht!  Mehr 
licht!"— More  light!  More  light!  Whether 
the  casement  had  grown  a  glimmering  square 
because  of  the  film  of  death,  or  whether  it  was 
the  windows  of  the  soul  he  wanted  open,  we 
shall  never  know.  But  it  is  all  one.  Body  and 
soul  alike  cry  out  for  light.  Light  we  must 
have — the  Light  of  the  world,  or  we  perish. 

A  dozen  years  ago  or  so,  there  was,  on  a 
bit  of  a  branch  railway,  leading  from  the 
mountains  to  the  bluegrass  of  Kentucky,  a 
blind  fiddler  who  played  for  the  pennies  of 
the  passengers.  Everybody  accustomed  to 
travel  on  that  little  "  jerk-water  "  train  knew 
Tom,  his  red  beard,  his  old  cracked  violin,  his 
older  tunes.  A  skilful  surgeon  of  Lexington 
one  day  said  to  Tom : 

"  If  you  are  willing  to  try  it,  I  think  there  is 
a  bare  chance  I  could  give  you  the  sight  of  one 
eye.  I  will  pay  all  your  hospital  expenses  and 
do  your  operation,  if  you  care  to  have  it  done." 

Tom,  who  had  never  seen  his  native  moun 
tains  nor  the  rolling  bluegrass,  who  had  never 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    117 

seen  his  wife  and  children,  eagerly  agreed  to 
take  the  chance.  He  was  placed  on  the  operat 
ing-table,  in  a  broad  blaze  of  sunlight,  his 
sightless  eyes  oscillating  from  side  to  side. 
The  surgeon  with  his  lancet  moved  his  hand 
from  side  to  side,  in  time  with  the  moving  eye, 
then  suddenly  made  a  horizontal  incision ;  then, 
the  difficult  oscillation  of  hand  again,  and  an 
other  swift  vertical  incision;  the  four  flaps 
thus  made  were  deftly  turned  back,  and  an  ob 
struction,  a  lens,  a  filament,  a  growth — no 
layman  can  adequately  describe — was  snapped 
out.  Tom  cried  aloud  and  quickly  closed  the 
eye. 

"  Open  that  eye ! "  with  an  oath,  gruffly 
shouted  the  surgeon.  "  Open  it,  I  say !  Open 
it !  "  Tom  opened  it ;  and  instantly  the  heal 
ing  balm  with  its  cotton  sponge  was  put  in 
place  and  bandaged. 

"  Forgive  me,  Tom,"  said  the  good  doctor, 
"  I  had  to  speak  gruffly ;  I  had  to  make  you 
open  that  eye." 

"  All  right,  Doc ;  but  what  was  that  hot  drop 
you  put  in  my  eye?  It  burned  like  fire." 

"  No  hot  drop  at  all,  Tom.  That  was  the 
light." 

"  My  God !  "  said  Tom.  "  My  God !  have  I 
seen  the  light  ?  " 

Two  weeks  in  a  darkened  room,  and  one 


118    UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL 

morning  the  surgeon  stood  by  while  the  nurse 
removed  the  bandages.  The  first  object  Tom 
saw  was  the  nurse's  face  bending  above 
him. 

"  Beautiful !  "  he  murmured.  "  Wonderful ! 
What  is  that?" 

"  Put  up  your  hand  and  see,  Tom,"  said  the 
doctor. 

"Oh,"  said  Tom,  abashed,  "that's  my 
nurse." 

He  would  then  sit  for  hours  studying  the 
objects  in  his  room. 

"  What  is  that  ?  looks  heavy,  and  has  four 
pieces  running  down  and  two  running  up,"  he 
would  murmur;  then  reaching  out  his  hand 
"  to  see,"  he  would  exclaim,  "  Oh,  that's  a 
chair!  "  He  would  sit  by  the  window  looking 
out  at  his  new  world.  "  What  is  that  moving 
up  the  street?  Mighty  big."  Then,  hearing 
the  rumble,  "  Oh,  that's  a  wagon." 

He  could  hardly  wait  the  allotted  time  to 
go  home.  Then  he  wrote  from  his  mountain 
cabin,  by  the  hand  of  one  of  his  children, 
saying : 

"  I  was  awful  glad  to  see  my  family  for  the 
first  time.  My  wife  is  not  as  pretty  as  my 
nurse.  I  can  see  that.  But  she's  wonderful 
pretty  to  me.  She's  been  mine  for  so  long. 
And  my  children  may  not  be  as  good-looking 


UPWARD  SLANT  OF  THE  SOUL    119 

as  some;  but  I  never  seen  any  on  the  way  up 
here  I'd  trade  off  for  'ary  one  of  them." 

Today,  Tom,  who  learned  rapidly,  is  book 
keeper  for  one  of  the  large  mining  companies 
in  the  mountains,  happy  as  a  king. 

To  one  man  who,  like  Tom,  has  opened  his 
eyes  upon  the  physical  world,  there  are  thou 
sands  who,  under  the  loving  skill  and  care 
of  the  great  Physician  and  High  Priest,  have 
opened  the  eyes  of  the  soul  to  behold  the  un 
speakable. 


VI 

THE  KINGDOM  WITH  UNSEEN 
BOUNDARIES 

THE  cry  "  The  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is 
at  hand ! "  was  as  startling  to  Jeru 
salem  as  "  The  Revolution  is  here !  " 
was  to  Paris  in  1793.  The  Hebrew  people 
were  as  ready  to  unsheath  swords,  pull  up 
paving-stones,  and  build  barricades  in  behalf 
of  the  new  Kingdom,  as  the  French  were  in 
behalf  of  liberty,  equality,  and  fraternity.  It 
was  no  new  word,  this  word  "  Kingdom  of 
Heaven."  It  had  long  been  on  the  lips  of 
peasant  and  prophet,  herdsmen  and  statesmen, 
fishermen  and  rabbis.  It  was  electric  with 
preparation,  dynamic  with  memories,  charged 
with  desperation,  longing,  hope  deferred. 

Jesus  adopted  it  and  adapted  it  to  His  pur 
poses.  There  could  be  no  happier  choice  of 
words.  To  be  sure,  He  meant  something  far 
different  from  what  the  Jews  had  meant  by  it ; 
He  put  into  it  a  totally  different  content  from 
what  it  had  long  held ;  both  its  denotation  and 
connotation,  in  His  hands,  were  so  vitally 

120 


THE  KINGDOM  121 

changed  that  one  would  scarcely  recognize  it 
as  the  same  old  phrase.  But  the  vital  energy 
that  it  so  long  held  He  carried  over  and  di 
verted  to  a  larger  and  finer  end.  With  them 
the  words  meant  a  restoration  of  the  throne  of 
David  and  of  Solomon  on  Zion;  with  Him, 
they  meant  a  restoration  of  the  dominance  of 
God  in  the  soul.  With  them  the  phrase  stood 
for  material  wealth,  power,  conquering  armies, 
onyx  palaces,  place  and  pelf  and  preferment; 
with  Him,  it  stood  for  spiritual  riches,  inward 
strength,  peace  toward  self  and  man  and  God, 
in  cottage  and  palace  both,  and  the  preferment 
of  ministration. 

They  say  the  men  of  the  Western  world  can 
not  understand  the  phrase  as  He  used  it,  any 
more  than  the  Jew  of  His  time.  Your  Occi 
dental  democrat  is  an  uncrowned  king  him 
self,  and  is  not  fond  of  regal  terminology. 
This  may  well  be;  but  when  one  grasps  the 
significance  that  Jesus  puts  into  the  phrase; 
when  one  understands  that  the  king  is  a  Father, 
the  Viceroy  His  son,  every  subject  His  child, 
the  people,  in  the  language  of  Professor  Royce, 
all  bound  together  in  a  "  Beloved  Community," 
the  politics  love,  the  chief  industry  service,  the 
wealth  human  brotherhood,  he  begins  then  to 
appreciate  the  fact  that  this  is  all  intelligible 
both  to  the  subjects  of  the  Oriental  despots, 


122  THE  KINGDOM 

and  to  the  citizens  of  Occidental  republics. 
Anybody  can  understand  a  Father,  even  though 
he  be  a  king. 

Undoubtedly  many  men  do  still  misunder 
stand  the  phrase  and  the  Master's  meaning. 
Even  as  then,  when  He  had  to  rebuke  His  clos 
est  followers  for  their  material  conceptions,  so 
He  does  today.  Once  when  passing  through 
Samaria,  the  inhabitants  of  a  little  village  re 
fused  Him  entrance  because  He  was  to  them 
a  heretic.  Then  two  of  His  disciples,  James 
and  John,  the  Boanerges,  sons  of  thunder,  ex 
claimed,  "  Master,  wilt  Thou  that  we  call  down 
fire  from  on  high  and  burn  up  these  people  ?  " 
The  Master  answered,  "  Ye  know  not  what 
spirit  ye  are  of."  In  like  manner  do  men  still 
do  violence  to  His  conceptions.  "  The  King 
dom  of  Heaven  suffereth  violence,  and  men  of 
violence  take  it  by  force."  Some  of  those 
who  apparently  stand  closest  to  His  person 
most  clearly  are  those  who  abuse  His  meaning. 

To  identify  the  Kingdom  with  any  visible 
organization,  institutional  religion  itself,  the 
Church;  to  give  it  boundaries,  ponderable 
weight,  numerable  population,  measurable 
wealth  and  power;  to  speak  of  members  of  the 
Kingdom,  coming  into  the  Kingdom,  with  ref 
erence  to  visible  relations  with  any  visible 
body; — all  this  is  to  do  violence  to  the  King- 


THE  KINGDOM  123 

dom  of  God  in  Jesus'  conception.  These 
violent  ideas,  moreover,  are  always  material, 
always  negative,  and  lead  always  to  despair. 

Mark  Twain  tells  of  an  old  negro  in  the 
canebrakes  of  the  South  who,  for  the  first  time 
and  without  knowing  what  it  was,  saw  a  Miss 
issippi  River  steamboat  plowing  up  the  turgid 
tide  of  the  river.  When  the  old  man  beheld 
the  rolling  smoke,  the  flying  sparks,  the  mighty 
fuss  and  fume,  and  heard  the  ponderous  chow- 
chow  and  the  earth-shaking  hoarse  siren,  he 
thought  this  was  the  Almighty  or  the  adver 
sary,  and  plunging  deeper  into  the  brake,  fell 
upon  his  knees,  crying: 

"  Lord  'a'  mercy  on  dis  old  niggah !  De 
Kingdom  am  a-comin' !  " 

There  are  some  men  of  intelligence  just  as 
material  in  their  notions  of  the  Kingdom,  just 
as  naive,  just  as  childlike  as  was  this  old  uncle. 
When  they  see  sparks  and  hear  a  big  noise, 
when  they  behold  crowds  assembled  and  fire 
works  let  off,  when  they  possess  great  build 
ings,  great  treasuries,  wide  "  influence,"  mighty 
"  movements,"  they  cry  out,  "  The  Kingdom  is 
advancing !  "  Possibly  it  is ;  quite  as  possibly 
it  is  not. 

Jesus  said,  "  You  cannot  say  Lo  here  and  Lo 
there,  for  the  Kingdom  is  among  you."  It 
has  no  visible  boundary  lines.  No  man  can 


124  THE  KINGDOM 

mark  it  out,  measure  its  size  and  progress, 
count  its  members.  Its  lines  are  waving,  curv 
ing  lines,  cutting  out  many  whom  we  think 
to  be  in,  and  cutting  in  many  whom  we  think 
to  be  out.  It  is  among  us,  unseen,  known  only 
by  its  powerful,  wonderful  effects  upon  men 
and  the  world;  it  is  within  us,  as  well,  and 
part  of  each  one  of  us  belongs  to  the  bright 
kingdom  and  part  to  the  outer  darkness. 

How  futile,  then,  are  the  attempts  of  men 
to  deal  negatively  with  the  kingdom;  to  stand 
at  the  doors  of  it — the  non-existent  doors — and 
welcome  men  in,  or  shut  men  out.  Once  the 
grandees  of  the  Jewish  Church  stood  at  the 
portals  of  the  temple,  and  halting  the  heir 
apparent,  said  to  Him,  "  By  what  authority 
come  you  hither,  do  you  these  things  ?  "  The 
answer  was  swift  and  withering,  "  Woe  unto 
you,  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  hypocrites,  for  you 
will  neither  enter  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  nor 
will  you  permit  those  who  are  entering,  to 
enter  in!  "  And  little  grandees  of  the  church 
still  stand,  flourishing  some  petty  man-made 
creedal  test,  some  flaming  sword  of  dogma 
before  the  gates  of  what  they  think  to  be  the 
Kingdom,  seeking  vainly  to  shut  men  out,  or 
put  men  out,  from  the  all-embracing,  atmos 
pheric  Love  of  God. 

It  is  many  years  since  two  young  men  were 


THE  KINGDOM  125 

walking  under  the  stars  one  night  at  Harvard. 
One  was  in  the  Divinity  School  and  one  in  the 
Law  School.  The  former  asked  the  latter  if 
he  was  a  member  of  any  church,  and,  receiving 
a  negative  answer,  asked  why. 

"  Because,"  said  the  law  student,  "  I  have 
some  doubts  about  the  immortality  of  the 
soul." 

His  companion  did  not  argue  the  matter,  or 
attempt  to  demonstrate  the  undemonstrable ; 
but  pressed  upon  the  young  man  that  the  im 
portant  question  was  not  this,  but  "  What  do 
you  think  of  Christ?  "  The  law  student  paid 
his  tribute  of  reverence,  affection,  even  devo 
tion  to  the  master  of  men.  "  That,  then,  is 
enough,"  responded  his  friend;  "you  are  not 
far  from  the  Kingdom  of  God." 

They  separated  at  the  end  of  the  session. 
The  lawyer  went  to  his  home  in  the  far  South, 
and  took  honorable  place  at  the  bar  of  his  na 
tive  city.  Years  passed,  and  desultory  let 
ters  between  the  two.  Finally  the  one  friend 
wrote  the  other  the  same  old  question,  "  Are 
you  yet  a  member  of  any  church?  "  Substan 
tially,  this  was  the  answer: 

"  I  applied,  on  returning  home,  for  admission 
to  my  ancestral  church.  The  ecclesiastic  asked 
me :  'Do  you  believe  in  God  the  Father,  al 
mighty  maker  of  heaven  and  earth?'  Yes, 


126  THE  KINGDOM 

'  And  in  Jesus  Christ,  His  only  Son,  our  Sa 
viour?  '  Yes.  '  In  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God?  ' 
Yes.  '  Do  you  believe  in  this,  in  that,  in  the 
other  ?  '  Yes.  '  Do  you  believe  in  the  immor 
tality  of  the  soul?  '  I — do — not — know !  Then 
said  the  ecclesiastic  of  that  ancestral  church, 
*  You  cannot  enter  here.' ' 

God  in  Heaven !  And  the  puny  man  thought 
he  was  shutting  that  young  attorney  out  of 
the  Kingdom  of  Heaven !  He  thought  that  lit 
tle  church  of  his  identical  with  the  Kingdom ! 
No  ecclesiastic  in  earth  or  hell  has  the  power  to 
keep  the  loving  heart  from  the  heart  of  God. 
The  immortality  of  the  soul  is  a  vital  doctrine ; 
it  is  a  corollary  of  belief  in  God  and  Christ. 
Some  day  the  doubt  will  be  swept  away,  when 
the  lawyer  lays  a  mother,  wife,  or  child  under 
the  sod.  Meantime  any  man  who  is  honestly  in 
the  Kingdom  will  do  all  in  his  power  to  sweep 
that  man  and  his  doubts  with  him  into  the 
waiting  arms  of  his  Father.  Bless  God,  you 
cannot  shut  men  out,  nor  put  men  out  of  the 
Kingdom  without  frontiers ! 

Such  material  and  negative  conceptions  lead 
inevitably  to  despair.  The  Kingdom  cannot 
compete  in  outward  magnificence  with  the 
great  kingdoms  of  this  world.  It  has  no  treas 
uries  like  the  mighty  treasuries  of  insurance 
societies,  of  railway  and  steamship  companies, 


THE  KINGDOM  127 

of  steelworks,  or  the  mints  of  nations.  It  has, 
at  least  on  this  continent,  no  buildings  com 
parable  to  the  marble  palaces  of  the  vast  in 
dustries  of  men.  The  employees  of  this  King 
dom  often  look  upon  these  great  structures 
round  about  them,  and  comparing  them  with 
their  own  little  inelegancies  and  poverties,  are 
tempted  to  quit  their  present  service  and  seek 
another  employer.  They  must  get  closer  to 
the  King  and  the  heart  of  His  Kingdom  if  they 
would  see  that  when  all  these  other  buildings 
and  treasuries  are  cinders  and  ashes  and  dust, 
the  Kingdom  will  still  be  here ;  that  others  come 
and  go,  but  of  His  Kingdom  there  shall  be 
no  end. 

Of  course  the  logical  thing  for  one  whose 
notions  are  material  and  negative  is  to  seek 
another  employer.  Or,  if_  he  remains  in  the 
service  of  his  present  King,  feeling  all  the  time 
that  the  Kingdom  is  coterminous  with  his 
church  or  any  church  or  all  churches,  that  it 
can  be  bounded  on  east,  west,  north  or  south, 
that  its  success  is  measured  by  wealth,  num 
bers,  power,  then  there  are  but  two  logical 
courses  open  to  him.  He  must  either  take  the 
sword,  try  to  persuade  his  fellows  to  do  the 
like,  and,  organizing  into  regiments  and  army 
corps,  go  out  like  Mahomet  and  conquer  men 
into  the  Kingdom;  or  else,  sitting  down  upon 


128  THE  KINGDOM 

his  ashheap  with  no  potsherd  of  comfort,  in 
his  despair,  curse  God  and  die. 

But  thank  God  His  Kingdom  is  not  nega 
tive,  nor  material,  but  positive  and  spiritual; 
and  leads  not  to  despair,  but  to  undying  hope. 
If  you  would  know  in  what  the  positive  char 
acter  of  this  Spiritual  Kingdom  consists,  you 
must  look  upon  the  King  of  it  when,  on  a  cer 
tain  day,  little  children  were  brought  to  Him, 
and  His  cabinet,  His  council  forbade  them. 
The  Prince  took  one  of  the  little  two-year-olds 
upon  His  knee,  and  others  in  His  arms,  and 
said,  "  Suffer  them  to  come  unto  me,  for  of 
such  is  the  Kingdom."  We  have  lost  the  mean 
ing  of  this  much  misquoted  text,  because,  with 
our  Western  perversity  and  literalism,  we  have 
made  it  the  storm  centre  of  a  doctrinal  con 
troversy.  What  a  surprise  for  us  now,  as  for 
those  men  then,  lies  in  the  words :  The  twelve 
men  about  Him  thought  that  they,  themselves, 
formed  the  nucleus  of  the  coming  Kingdom. 
They  were  to  be  chancellors  of  the  exchequer, 
ministers  of  state,  to  sit  on  His  right  and  left. 
Of  course  it  takes  men,  strong  men,  self- 
assertive  men  to  make  a  Kingdom.  While  we 
today,  religious  leaders,  preachers,  teachers, 
workers,  officers,  trustees  and  deacons,  we 
think  we  are  the  Kingdom.  Of  course  we  are! 
It  takes  men  of  prominence  and  power,  of 


THE  KINGDOM  129 

light  and  leading,  to  make  a  Kingdom.  Jesus 
said :  "  No.  Except  ye  become  as  little  chil 
dren,  ye  cannot  enter  into  the  Kingdom." 
What  is  it  about  a  child  that  makes  him  fit  for 
the  beloved  community  ? 

Docility  is  the  first  characteristic  of  a  child. 
He  is  open-minded,  inquiring,  anxious  to  learn, 
tireless  in  asking  questions.  Manhood,  how 
ever,  tends  to  crystallize,  fossilize,  at  forty. 
It  is  only  by  conscious  effort  that  we  can  keep 
the  mind  open,  ready  for  new  truth,  after  we 
reach  the  halfway  inn.  Some  few  there  are 
who  always  grow.  Hail  to  such  evergreen 
minds ! 

Simplicity  marks  the  child.  Only  the  great 
in  earth  and  heaven  are  simple.  The  rest  are 
all  convolutions  and  folds  of  affectation  and 
ostentation.  The  great  music,  great  art,  great 
literature,  great  inventions  are  so  simple  that 
when  we  look  upon  them,  we  say,  "  Why  did 
nobody  ever  think  of  that  before?  " 

The  child  is  sincere.  There  is  no  mingling 
of  whitish  wax  in  the  clear  honey  of  his  trans 
parency.  It  takes  souls  fit  for  the  Kingdom  to 
be  thus  pure.  Jesus  said  the  pure  are  blessed, 
for  they  shall  see  God.  All  the  rest  of  us  are 
courteously  insincere,  lying,  hypocritical.  Our 
love  itself  is  not  without  dissimulation. 


130  THE  KINGDOM 

The  child  is  poor.  Until  he  is  spoiled  by 
doting  parents  with  presents  of  toys  and  skates 
and  bicycles  and  bonbons  and  foolish  clothes, 
he  is  as  happy  with  a  rattle  or  a  few  shards  or 
pebbles  as  with  gold  or  gems.  His  life  is  inde 
pendent  of  the  things  that  he  possesses.  He 
does  not  know  the  yoke  of  property  and  con 
ventionality.  He  is  poor  in  spirit,  and  rich  in 
life.  Jesus  says  those  who  are  like  him  in  this 
respect  are  blessed,  for  theirs  is  the  Kingdom 
of  Heaven. 

The  child  is  loving.  He  radiates  love  and 
craves  love.  You  cannot  love  your  little  one 
too  much  nor  tell  him  too  often  that  you  love 
him  very  dearly.  The  most  pathetic  thing 
Martin  Luther  ever  uttered  was  the  statement 
that  his  father  and  mother  were  too  busy  and 
too  preoccupied  ever  to  lavish  upon  him  a  word 
of  love  or  a  caress, — Luther,  with  his  great 
human,  yearning,  loving  nature.  The  other 
day  the  press  dispatches  told  of  a  little  girl 
whose  clothing  caught  fire  at  the  open  grate. 
Her  father  extinguished  the  flames,  but  not 
until  the  little  thing  was  so  burned  that  she  died 
thirty  days  later. 

"Why  did  you  not  call  me  sooner?"  cried 
the  agonized  father,  when  he  had  put  out  the 
fire. 

"  I  didn't  want  mamma  to  know   I   had 


THE  KINGDOM  131 

burned  my  dress.  Don't  tell  mamma  I  burned 
my  dress." 

All  through  her  long  illness  the  little  thing 
kept  saying,  "  Mamma,  don't  scold  me." 

Here  was  a  child's  pure  love,  vitiated  by 
grown  people's  injections  of  fear.  A  horse 
which  jerks  his  head,  when  you  approach  him, 
has  been  spoiled  by  some  rough  hand  that  does 
not  know  and  love  the  dumb  brutes.  Of  course, 
Jesus  was  right  when  He  said  that  children, 
unspoiled,  unafraid,  natural,  loving,  are  the 
stuff  out  of  which  the  Kingdom  of  God  is 
made. 

With  these  principles  firmly  in  mind,  all 
justified  by  the  words  of  Jesus,  let  us  turn  our 
attention  now  to  the  visible  church,  the  repre 
sentative,  at  least,  of  the  Kingdom  upon  earth, 
by  which  the  Kingdom  is  so  often,  rightly  or 
wrongly,  judged  by  the  man  in  the  street. 
What  justice  is  there  in  his  criticisms  of  it? 
Can  we  profit  by  them?  Can  we  bring  him 
closer  to  it  and  into  more  sympathy  with  it  and 
understanding  of  it? 

As  we  approach  this  topic,  let  us  first  pre 
pare  our  minds  by  reading  a  few  of  the  words 
that  St.  Paul  has  to  say  about  the  institution 
which  he  had  so  much  to  do  with  shaping : 

"  Christ  also  loved  His  church  and  gave 
Himself  for  it,  that  He  might  sanctify  it,  hav- 


132  THE  KINGDOM 

ing  cleansed  it  by  the  washing  of  water  with 
the  Word,  that  He  might  present  the  church  to 
Himself  a  glorious  church,  not  having  spot  or 
wrinkle  or  any  such  thing,  and  that  it  should 
be  holy  and  without  blemish. — Eph.  v :  25. 

The  Church  of  Jesus  Christ  was  an  out 
growth  of  both  the  synagogue  system  of  the 
Jew  and  the  popular  meeting  of  the  Greek.  In 
point  of  fact,  three  elements  poured  them 
selves  into  the  formation  of  the  early  Church 
— the  Hebrew  genius  for  religion,  the  Greek 
democracy  and  public  spirit,  and  the  Roman 
sense  of  order  and  of  law.  Jesus  did  not  found 
a  church,  dictate  an  organization,  mark  out  a 
plan ;  neither,  for  that  matter,  did  the  apostles. 
It  would  be  impossible  to  trace  in  the  Scrip 
tures  a  definite  prescribed  formula  by  which 
a  church  could  be  organized.  That  is  clearly 
seen  in  the  fact  that  churches  built  upon  totally 
different  lines  all  claim  to  find  their  specifica 
tions  in  this  book.  Indeed,  there  was  no  Church 
at  large  in  the  apostolic  age,  however  much  we 
may  contend  for  it  in  some  of  our  public  alter 
cations.  We  cannot  say  that  the  organization 
of  any  church  with  its  board  of  deacons,  or 
its  board  of  vestrymen,  or  its  board  of  trustees, 
or  its  board  of  elders,  or  its  bishops,  is  pro 
vided  for  in  the  Scriptures. 

The    Church    is    a    man-made    institution. 


THE  KINGDOM  133 

There  is  no  "  thus  saith  the  Lord,"  by  which 
the  Church,  as  it  has  developed  through  the 
centuries  and  up  to  this  present  hour,  can  be 
defined.  The  world  knows  this  fact,  and 
knowing  it,  does  not  hesitate  to  assail  the 
Church,  to  criticize  it,  to  find  fault  with  it,  to 
pick  flaws  in  it,  to  animadvert  upon  it.  All 
this  is  helpful  to  the  Church.  Criticism,  even 
bitter  criticism,  is  sometimes  a  saving  salt. 
Anything  that  is  beyond  criticism  must  be  di 
vine  and  not  human,  and  even  the  divine  is 
open  to  estimation  and  appreciation. 

The  world  does  not  with  hostility  criticize 
the  founder  of  our  faith.  You  do  not  hear 
men  speaking  against  Jesus  of  Nazareth.  The 
most  violent  critics  of  the  Church,  go  where 
you  will  in  the  outskirts  of  society,  where  it 
is  not  respectable  to  belong  to  the  Church,  or  to 
have  anything  to  do  with  the  Church,  in  the 
Socialists'  hall,  in  the  labor  temples  or  even 
amongst  the  denizens  of  the  backwoods  or 
slums,  amongst  the  navvies  that  toil  upon  your 
railways  or  the  longshoremen  on  your  wharves, 
and  you  will  hear  not  a  single  word  spoken 
against  the  Nazarene.  But  you  will  hear  the 
Church  torn  to  pieces.  It  is  well,  once  in  a 
while,  for  the  Church  to  face  its  critics,  to 
hear  their  word,  to  weigh  it,  to  take  it  home 
and  digest  it,  and  if  possible  profit  by  it. 


134.  THE  KINGDOM 

Let  us,  then,  attempt  to  present  the  indict 
ment  against  the  Church;  next  enter  a  plea  in 
behalf  of  the  Church  and  then  show  how  the 
Church  could,  if  it  cared  to,  defend  itself,  and 
then  if  possible  carry  the  war  into  the  enemy's 
country. 

First  of  all,  what  are  the  criticisms  cur 
rently  offered  against  the  Church?  Let  us  be 
just  as  candid  and  frank  as  we  know  how  to 
be,  just  as  comprehensive  in  stating  these  criti 
cisms  as  we  can. 

It  is  claimed  that  the  Church  is  divided.  So 
it  is.  There  is  no  one  great  church.  The 
Catholic  Church  has  its  two  branches,  the 
Greek  and  the  Roman;  and  the  feeling  is  bit 
ter  between  the  two.  Protestantism,  created 
in  the  sixteenth  century  as  an  offshoot  and 
protest  against  the  Roman  church,  is  also  di 
vided,  and  the  longer  its  course  is  running  the 
more  it  is  becoming  divided.  So  that  when 
the  message  of  the  gospel  is  carried  into  a 
foreign  land  today,  the  heathen  has  the  right 
of  choosing  to  become  any  one  of  twelve  or 
thirteen  different  kinds  of  Methodist,  eleven 
or  twelve  different  kinds  of  Baptist  or  Pres 
byterian,  a  half-dozen  different  kinds  of  an 
other  religious  denomination,  and  so  on  indefi 
nitely;  so  that  the  poor  heathen  is  perplexed, 
among  one  hundred  and  fifty  diverse  religious 


THE  KINGDOM  135 

bodies,  to  know  where  to  find  a  resting-place 
for  the  sole  of  his  foot. 

Nor  need  we  go  so  far  away  from  home  to 
find  the  difficulties  and  the  disasters  that  beset 
the  divided  church.  In  a  little  town  of  five 
or  six  hundred  inhabitants,  you  will  find  four 
or  five  spires  pointing  into  the  sky.  You  will 
find  a  little  congregation  of  twenty-five  or 
thirty  in  each  one  of  those  little  churches,  and 
each  congregation  pulling  and  hauling  against 
the  other,  by  name  denouncing  one  another, 
having  a  non-resident  preacher  once  a  month, 
or  once  in  two  weeks  at  the  best,  leading  a  most 
precarious  existence,  when  there  are  scarcely 
enough  people  in  the  village  to  support  one 
good  strong  Christian  church.  And  the  world 
looks  upon  this  and  says,  "  This  is  bad  busi 
ness,  it  is  not  sensible,  it  is  not  what  you  would 
expect  of  children  of  a  loving  God  who  love 
each  other."  Consequently  we  come  up  against 
some  great  national  crisis,  some  international 
catastrophe  like  that  which  Europe  has  faced 
since  1914,  and  the  Church  finds  itself  power 
less  to  confront  it  and  to  deal  with  it.  The 
Church  has  failed  in  Europe.  Christianity  has 
not  failed;  religion  has  not  failed;  but  the 
Church,  the  institution,  has  completely  failed; 
and  we  must  admit  it. 

Pope  Pius  of  Rome  died  of  a  broken  heart 


136  THE  KINGDOM 

because  he  could  not  prevent  the  European 
war.  His  heart  should  not  have  broken;  it 
was  his  church  that  really  was  broken  long  ago. 
Time  was  when  the  Pope  could  draw  his  line 
and  say  to  the  monarchs  of  the  earth,  "  Thus 
far,  and  no  farther  shall  you  go."  Time  was 
when  he  could  have  stretched  the  aegis  of  his 
protection  over  Rheims,  over  Liege,  over  all 
of  little  Belgium,  even  as  Richelieu  in  his  ad 
vanced  age  did,  over  a  defenceless  maiden, 
saying : 

"  Then  wakes  the  power  that  in  the  age  of  iron 
Rose  to  curb  the  great  and  lift  the  low. 
Mark  where  she  stands !    About  her  form  I  draw 
The  awful  circle  of  our  solemn  church. 
Set  but  a  foot  within  that  holy  ground, 
And  on  thy  head,  yea  though  it  wore  a  crown, 
I  launch  the  curse  of  Rome!" 

But  the  Church — the  man-made  Church — 
institutional  religion,  has  no  such  power  in 
Europe  or  the  world  today. 

Again,  the  Church  is  charged  with  being 
undemocratic.  They  say  that  the  Church  gives 
a  special  precedence  to  wealthy  men,  that  it 
fawns  upon  the  rich,  that  it  will  not  assail  their 
business  crimes — or  to  put  it  a  little  more 
mildly,  their  business  irregularities;  that  the 
Church  truckles  to  the  well-to-do,  welcomes  the 
man  in  good  clothes  and  pays  little  or  no  heed 


THE  KINGDOM  137 

to  the  man  in  threadbare  garments;  that  the 
Church  rents  its  pews  and  charges  for  them 
as  it  would  for  seats  in  a  theatre;  that  the 
Church  moves  away  from  the  downtown  sec 
tions  of  the  city  just  as  rapidly  as  these  sec 
tions  become  commercialized  and  boarding- 
housed,  and  gets  out  into  the  residence  section 
where  the  well-to-do  and  the  comfortable  are 
all  around  it,  to  support  it;  that  the  Church 
has  constantly  an  eye  to  the  main  chance ;  that 
it  is  no  longer  democratic.  Once  again  the 
Church  must  admit  the  charge.  It  has  been 
guilty  of  all  these  failures  in  its  application 
of  the  brotherhood  of  man  to  man. 

Again,  the  charge  is  brought  that  the  Church 
is  full  of  hypocrites,  and  that  is  true.  There 
are  plenty  of  men  in  the  Church  who  are  not 
really  Christian  men.  There  are  plenty  of  men 
in  it  who  are  trying  to  appear  better  than  they 
really  are.  The  Church  is  full— we  need  not 
say  full — but  it  is  well  filled,  with  men  who 
are  keeping  other  people  out  of  the  Church  by 
the  character  of  their  lives,  and  by  the  knowl 
edge  that  other  men  have  of  their  transactions. 

Still  another  charge.  The  Church  maintains 
a  worn-out,  effete,  back-number  message.  The 
Church  is  not  preaching  an  up-to-date  gospel, 
but  instead  is  bolstering  qp  certain  dogmas  and 
utterances  of  a  threadbare  past,  laying  em- 


138  THE  KINGDOM 

phasis  upon  the  theological  conceptions  held 
by  our  Puritan  ancestry,  by  our  old  German 
ancestry,  by  our  old  British  ancestry,  and  main 
taining  that  they  are  essential  in  this  modern 
day.  That  is  true.  The  Church  is  doing  that. 
There  are  cobwebs  all  over  the  vaulted  ceil 
ings  of  the  great  cathedrals  of  the  world;  and 
cobwebs  in  the  brains  of  the  messengers  of 
Jesus  Christ.  That  is  a  fact. 

Now,  perhaps  we  have  fairly  well  covered 
the  indictment  that  is  brought  against  the 
Church  by  her  critics;  and  what  is  the  plea 
that  she  will  bring,  when  brought  to  the  bar  of 
public  opinion;  what  weighted  defence  prefer? 
She  will  have  to  plead  guilty.  She  cannot  do 
otherwise  if  she  is  candid  and  honest  and  fair. 
She  will  have  to  say,  "  It  is  true  I  am  divided ; 
it  is  true  I  have  been  undemocratic;  it  is  true 
at  times  I  am  hypocritical ;  it  is  true  that  I  am 
maintaining  a  great  many  old  worn-out  articles 
of  faith  and  practice."  We  shall  have  to  plead 
guilty  in  behalf  of  the  Church. 

But  when  we  have  done  so,  we  are  able  to 
add  that  there  are  certain  extenuating  circum 
stances;  that  men  are  all  more  or  less  hypo 
crites  ;  that  they  are  all  undemocratic,  first  and 
last;  that  there  is  not  anything  that  is  solidly 
united;  that  there  is  not  anybody^ but  who 
maintains  cobwebs  in  his  brain  and  holds  on 


THE  KINGDOM  139 

to  old  worn-out  conceptions.  That  is  not  a 
justification  for  the  Church,  mark  you.  She  is 
faulty  and  guilty  in  that  she  does  these  things, 
and  everybody  who  does  them  is  guilty,  too. 
But,  at  least,  there  is  some  extenuation  for  the 
Church,  and  those  who  live  in  glass  houses 
cannot  fling  too  many  stones  at  her. 

Goethe  was  right  when  he  said  that  the  whole 
history  of  the  Church  is  one  mishmash  of 
error  and  violence.  True,  she  has  slain  and 
ostracized  her  best  men ;  she  has  brought  them 
as  heretics  to  the  bar  of  her  judgment  and 
condemned  them  under  inquisitions.  True,  her 
vaulted  arches  have  rung  with  their  groans; 
her  tessellated  pavements  have  been  blackened 
with  their  blood.  Yet,  when  all  is  said  and 
done,  the  Church  has  been  the  greatest  force 
for  righteousness  in  the  history  of  civiliza 
tion;  with  all  of  her  imperfections,  in  the  last 
two  thousand  years,  she  has  done  more  for 
mankind  than  any  other  institution,  system  of 
philosophy,  movement,  or  crusade  has  dared 
to  claim  for  itself.  She  is  the  greatest  power 
for  righteousness  in  the  world  today.  Talk 
about  your  courts  of  law,  your  palaces  of 
justice,  your  temples  of  reform,  your  benefi 
cent  organizations,  your  republican  congress 
halls, — as  the  sun  rises  in  the  east  in  the  morn 
ing  and  courses  to  his  setting  in  the  west  at 


140  THE  KINGDOM 

night,  the  shadow  of  the  great  Church  of 
Christ  falls  upon  all  these  lesser  structures 
of  the  world  even  as  that  of  a  great  cathedral 
falls  upon  townhall,  shop,  and  home,  of  the 
village  in  which  it  is  placed.  All  these  have 
had  their  origin,  their  safeguard,  and  their 
hope  in  her. 

In  the  third  or  fourth  century,  when  the 
Dark  Ages  began,  when  religion  had  crum 
bled,  when  empires  were  falling  about  men's 
ears,  when  hope  was  gone,  when  life  looked 
black,  she  gave  enough  inspiration  to  cement 
and  hold  together  the  disintegrated  purposes 
and  ideals  of  mankind ;  in  the  Middle  Ages,  the 
ages  of  chivalry,  her  light  shone  through,  back 
and  forth,  the  lame  conceptions  of  life  that 
men  held,  and  she  was  the  only  tie  that  bound 
together  the  dissevered  members  of  the  human 
race.  And  in  this  present  age  she  has  kept 
alive  an  ethical  ideal  which,  to  say  the  least, 
is  not  at  all  in  keeping  with  the  spirit  of  purely 
material  times.  This  much  we  must  allow 
to  her. 

If  there  were  any  desire  for  controversy  on 
the  part  of  the  Church,  she  has  weapons  with 
which  she  might  turn  against  her  accusers,  and 
she  might  say  to  those  who  criticize  her  for 
being  divided :  "  Are  you  united  ?  Is  your 
lodge  united?  Is  your  business  life  united? 


THE  KINGDOM  141 

Is  there  harmony  of  effort  in  the  nation, 
amongst  the  men  of  the  same  pursuit?  You 
men  born  kin  to  each  other,  are  you  united?  " 
She  might  turn  to  those  who  accuse  her  of 
being  undemocratic  and  ask :  "  Are  you  demo 
cratic?  Democracy  has  suffered  in  Europe 
and  democracy  is  in  danger  in  America  as  well. 
Democracy  always  lives  in  fear  of  her  life. 
Do  you  never  fawn  upon  wealth?  Do  you 
never  seek  out  the  rich  man  for  favors  and 
for  opportunities,  O  you  worldling?"  She 
might  turn  upon  those  who  accuse  her  of 
hypocrisy  and  say :  "  Is  there  any  hypocrisy 
outside  the  church?  Are  there  any  men  who 
try  to  appear  better  than  they  are  in  the  judg 
ment  of  their  neighbors?  You  men  of  the 
world,  inveighing  against  the  Church,  you  who 
try  to  give  the  impression  that  you  are  better 
than  some  that  are  in  the  Church — beware,  be 
ware  that  you  too  are  not  the  hypocrite !  " 

So,  one  after  another,  she  might  deal  with 
the  critics  if  she  cared  to,  but  it  is  not  polemics 
that  she  ought  to  be  engaged  in.  It  is  not 
argument,  it  is  not  defence.  Far  the  wiser 
and  far  the  more  candid  attitude  for  the  Church 
to  assume  is  to  plead  guilty  to  all  of  these 
and  say :  "  The  Church  is  human,  the  Church 
is  fallible,  the  Church  has  failed,  the  Church 
has  broken  down  at  moments  of  great  emer- 


142  THE  KINGDOM 

gency  in  the  history  of  the  world.  Guilty, 
guilty,  guilty ! " 

But  let  us  ask  what  is  offered  in  place  of 
it?  What  have  you  to  give,  men  of  the 
world?  Give  us  something  better  than  the 
Church.  We  earnestly  desire  it.  We  will 
adopt  it  if  you  but  convince  us  that  it  is  bet 
ter  than  the  Church.  Give  us  something  else 
than  the  religion  of  Jesus  Christ.  Have  you 
it  in  your  possession?  Tell  us  of  it,  we  beg  of 
you,  we  crave  of  you;  give  it  to  us. 

No,  we  shall  find  that  the  great  company 
of  those  who  stand  outside  the  Church  and  as 
sail  it  have,  for  the  most  part,  adopted  the 
religion  of  naturalism.  We  are  told  that  a 
great  wave  of  secularism  has  been  sweeping 
over  the  civilized  world.  Naturalism  might 
be  a  better  word  by  which  to  designate  it, 
for,  after  all,  it  is  a  type  of  religion.  Men 
cannot  live  without  a  religion  of  some  kind. 
That,  apparently,  is  what  it  is;  a  movement 
widespread,  evident  in  the  thought  of  Germany, 
present  in  the  life  of  England,  widely  dis 
seminated  in  the  United  States, — a  movement 
that  may  be  called  the  naturalistic  religion,  a 
religion  of  nature. 

This  is  the  way  its  votary  talks :  "  My  re 
ligion  is  man.  My  religion  is  goodness  to  my 
fellow-man.  My  religion  is  fulfilling  the 


THE  KINGDOM  143 

Golden  Rule  and  treating  other  men  as  I  would 
have  them  treat  me.  My  religion  is  visiting 
hospitals  and  taking  care  of  the  sick  and  or 
phans.  My  religion  is  the  square  deal.  My 
religion  is  labor,  is  economic  reform.  My  re 
ligion  is  in  being  kind  and  urbane,  helpful  to 
the  world  about  me."  It  is  precisely  what 
Feuerbach  meant  when  he  spoke  of  the  de 
velopment  of  his  religion,  saying,  "  My  re 
ligion  first  was  God,  then  it  was  reason,  then 
it  was  man,"  meaning  by  that,  that  the  world 
had  passed  through  the  stages  first  of  worship 
of  a  personal  God,  then  through  rationalism 
and  agnosticism,  and  finally  into  a  naturalistic 
religion,  the  religion  of  the  promotion  of  man. 
Naturalistic  religion  says :  "  Get  the  best  out 
of  your  life  that  is  possible  foj  you  to  get 
here  and  now.  I  do  not  care  for  any  religion 
that  does  not  give  me  a  chance  to  work,  a 
chance  to  stand  side  by  side  and  on  equal  foot 
ing  with  other  workers;  organize  forces  for 
the  benefit  of  and  uplifting  of  man ;  selfishness 
here  and  now,  this  world's  goods,  this  world's 
chance,  this  world's  pleasures,  things  that  I  can 
have  now.  I  don't  want  to  wait.  I  don't 
want  to  put  off  until  a  future  life.  I  want  the 
good  of  life  here  and  now." 

That  is  the  attitude,  is  it  not,  of  the  secular 
ism,  the  natural  religion  of  the  day.     Let  us 


144.  THE  KINGDOM 

treat  it  honestly  and  kindly  and  candidly.  A 
great  part  of  this  is  the  spirit  of  the  Christian 
gospel,  after  all.  Just  as  we  may  recognize 
many  of  the  best  things  in  rationalism,  ag 
nosticism,  in  any  movement  in  the  intellectual 
world,  so  may  we  recognize  many  of  the  valu 
able  things  in  naturalism.  But  does  it  reach 
the  depths  of  life?  Does  it  solve  the  problem 
of  life?  Does  it  finally  give  a  deep-set  satis 
faction  in  life?  That  is  what  we  wish  to 
know.  If  we  can  find  out  that  it  does,  let  us 
adopt  it  and  go  along  with  the  rest.  Let  us 
see. 

Does  material  comfort  and  welfare  bring 
the  ultimate  satisfaction, — the  development  of 
the  soul,  the  communion  of  souls  with  other 
souls,  the  harmony  of  life  with  other  lives? 
Does  wealth  in  this  world  bring  spiritual  de 
velopment,  love,  union?  It  is  not  good  for 
man  to  live  alone,  and  oftentimes  we  shall  find 
that  those  who  have  had  the  greatest  pros 
perity,  the  most  of  material  opportunity,  con 
tinuous  effort,  achievement  and  pleasure,  have 
at  last  been  constrained  to  find  this  world 
lonely — a  sterile  promontory,  stale,  flat,  and 
unprofitable.  Material  welfare  often  palls;  it 
does  not  reach  the  basis  of  our  nature.  Man 
does  not  live  by  bread  alone.  There  is  some 
thing  deeper  and  pro  founder  in  us  than  can 


THE  KINGDOM  145 

be  so  satisfied.  So,  though  we  may  live  in  the 
house  by  the  side  of  the  road  and  be  a  friend 
to  man,  though  we  may  minister  to  the  sick 
and  afflicted,  and  though  we  may  feed  the  hun 
gry  and  the  poor,  though  we  may  have  op 
portunity  to  work,  these  outward  acts  do  not 
reach  the  basis  of  life. 

It  has  been  pointed  out  that  two  great  man- 
made  institutions  of  Europe  collapsed  in  1914. 
One  was  Socialism  and  one  was  the  Church. 
Socialism,  with  eight  million  brothers  of  the 
International,  sworn  that  they  would  not  fight 
each  other,  is  a  ruin,  perhaps  only  temporarily, 
but  none  the  less  a  ruin,  from  roof -tree  to 
foundation  stone.  The  Church,  with  three 
hundred  millions  of  brothers,  also  went  down 
before  the  shock;  and  millions  of  her  sons  are 
dead  or  in  the  trenches.  We  have  already 
seen  why  the  Church  failed :  because  she  was 
divided,  undemocratic,  behind  the  hour,  appeal 
ing  in  her  message  to  fear  and  a  selfish  desire 
to  save  one's  own  little  soul.  But  why  did  So 
cialism  fail?  Was  it  not  because  her  ultimate 
appeal  also  was  selfish,  material  ?  Did  she  not 
hold  before  men's  eyes  a  Paradise  of  plenty, 
an  Elysium  of  short  hours,  high  pay,  and  much 
leisure?  All  these  things  are  worth  while, 
valuable  in  themselves;  but  they  are  not  the 
end  of  life,  and  the  common  man,  deep  down 


146  THE  KINGDOM 

in  his  heart,  knows  it.  The  Church  must  learn 
from  Lowell  that 

"  Heaven's  gate  is  shut  to  him  who  comes  alone, 
Save  thou  a  soul  and  it  shall  save  thine  own." 

And  Socialism  must  learn  from  Jesus  Christ 
that  man  shall  not  live  by  bread  alone,  but  by 
every  word  that  proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth 
of  God. 

Militarism  succeeded  where  both  these  other 
institutions  failed,  because  it  appealed  to  the 
heroic  in  man.  It  said  to  him,  no  doubt  deceiv 
ing  him,  but  reaching  him,  "  Come  out,  not  to 
ease  and  short  hours,  not  to  high  pay,  and 
equal  opportunity,  not  to  personal  safety;  but 
to  danger,  hardship,  wounds,  imprisonment 
and  death,  on  behalf  of  wife,  mother,  children, 
native  land."  To  reach  men  you  must  reach 
deep  down. 

If  the  Church  is  wise,  if  the  movements  for 
reform  are  wise,  they  will  remember  this. 
They  will  appeal  not  to  what  is  selfish  and 
low  in  him ;  but  to  what  is  fine  and  heroic  and 
high.  They  will  call  him  to  a  huge  task,  a 
high  outlook,  and  a  great  love.  They  will 
call  him  to  a  mystic  union  of  himself  with  other 
men,  and  all  with  God.  He  is  by  nature  re 
ligious.  He  cannot  live  alone,  nor  without 
God.  He  is  not  content  without  touch  with 


THE  KINGDOM  147 

other  souls  and  with  the  Oversold.  Work  does 
not  satisfy;  opportunity  to  do  tasks  and  de 
velop  one's  capabilities  does  not  reach ;  benevo 
lent  organizations  do  not  content.  Religious 
societies,  parties,  none  of  these  go  where  re 
ligion  reaches,  where  the  Church  of  Jesus 
Christ  can  appeal.  Here  we  can  sing  and  sing 
in  sincerity : 

"  How  sweet,  how  heavenly  is  the  sight, 
When  those  who  love  the  Lord, 
In  one  another's  peace  delight, 
And  so  fulfil  the  Word." 

The  old-fashioned  song  is  good  to  this  hour. 
To  be  sure,  there  are  men  in  the  Church  that 
do  not  believe  profoundly  in  the  Church,  nor 
find  the  best  in  the  Church.  To  be  sure,  we 
should  return  to  the  old  conception  religious 
Israel  once  held  that  all  were  not  Israel  who 
were  of  Israel,  but  that  there  was  within  Israel 
a  chosen  community,  a  sacred  few,  a  remnant. 
So  within  the  Church  there  is  a  beloved  com 
munity, — those  who  have  nothing  else  as  their 
high  ideal  but  the  spiritual  life,  nothing  else 
but  the  love  one  of  another  and  of  humanity, 
nothing  else  but  the  uplift  of  others  into  unity 
and  harmony  with  God.  That  beloved  com 
munity  within  the  Church  is  the  Church,  and 
it  is  all-conquering,  it  is  all-powerful,  and  the 
gates  of  hell  shall  not  prevail  against  it. 


148  THE  KINGDOM 

This,  then,  is  the  reply  that  the  Church  must 
make  to  the  criticism  of  the  day.  It  must  say : 
"  I  know  that  I  have  failed,  I  plead  guilty  to 
the  indictment.  I  am  divided.  I  am  hypocriti 
cal.  I  am  broken  and  dissevered.  I  am  un 
democratic.  I  am  behind  the  times.  I  admit 
it  all.  But  will  you  show  me  something  human 
that  is  not  divided,  that  is  democratic,  that 
is  thoroughly  up  to  the  times,  and  is  without 
hypocrisy,  sincere,  square,  and  candid  ?  "  Fur 
ther  than  that,  the  Christian  may  add  :  "  Will 
you  give  me  something  that  satisfies  my  soul, 
that  brings  me  into  intimate  touch  and  har 
mony  with  men  and  women  of  the  highest  aims 
and  purposes,  that  furnishes  not  merely  work 
for  my  hands  to  do,  not  merely  service  for 
me  to  render,  but  aspiration  and  love  and  har 
mony  with  the  powers  within  and  above? 
Give  me  that,  for  nothing  short  of  that  will 
satisfy  this  craving,  restless,  uneasy  soul  of 
mine." 

There  is  a  statue  on  the  other  side  of  the 
water — in  the  church  at  Copenhagen.  Let  us 
go  to  see  it  when  next  we  go  abroad.  It  is 
already  familiar  to  many,  from  photograph 
and  plaster-cast.  It  is  Thorwaldsen's  figure 
of  the  Christ.  There  He  stands,  the  great 
White  Lord,  as  if  He'  had  just  come  in  through 
the  closed  doors  and  stood  in  the  midst,  His 


THE  KINGDOM  149 

hands  outstretched  as  if  in  blessing  and  His 
lips  ready  softly  to  breathe,  "  Peace  be  to  this 
house !  " 

And  let  us  see,  one  day,  the  original  of  that 
statue,  the  great  White  Lord  Himself!  Can 
you  not  almost  see  Him  now,  as  He  comes  in 
through  the  closed,  or  half-closed  doors  of  our 
selfish  hearts,  saying  to  jostling  class  and  class, 
the  warring  nations,  the  jarring  creeds, 
"  Peace,  peace  be  to  this  house !  " 

Even  so,  come  Lord  Jesus,  and  Thy  King 
dom! 

Come  into  the  hearts  of  men, 
Pervade,  enkindle  them, 
Reach  out  and  over  them, 

Son  of  Man,  Thy  sway! 
Kingdom  of  God,  ah  when! 
Into  the  hearts  of  men, — 
Peace  for  the  souls  of  them, 

Come,  come,  we  pray! 


VII 
WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

BUT  now  a  few  words  more  are  neces 
sary  concerning  the  earthly  representa 
tive    of   this   kingdom.     Who    is    this 
Jesus,  this  Son  of  God,  Son  of  Man,  head  of 
the  visible  Church,  chief  cornerstone? 

Your  man  in  the  street  is  your  true  mystic. 
Questions  of  controversy  concern  him  little. 
Like  Gallio,  he  is  careless  of  these  things. 
Consciously  or  subconsciously  he  is  aware  of 
the  distinction  between  fact  and  truth.  He 
recollects  that,  as  a  child,  he  demanded  to  know 
concerning  every  story  told  him  whether  it 
was  a  true  story,  meaning  whether  it  was  a 
fact-story.  He  is  accustomed  to  the  same  de 
mand  from  his  own  child.  But  grown  to  man's 
estate,  he  is  far  more  concerned  with  the  truth 
of  a  story  than  with  the  fact  of  a  story.  He 
knows  that  Jean  Valjean  is  truer  than  any 
mere  fact  concerning  the  galleys  of  Toulon. 
He  sees  the  truth  in  Romola,  David  Copper- 
field,  Colonel  Newcome,  Hedda  Gabler.  He 
knows  that  there  never  was  a  man  in  Denmark, 

150 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    151 

let  alone  a  prince  at  Elsinore,  half  so  true  as 
Hamlet,  the  melancholy  Dane.  Your  man  of 
the  world  may  think  he  is  anxious  to  know 
facts,  but  in  proportion  as  he  is  a  man  and  a 
mystic,  he  is  far  more  anxious  to  know  truths. 

So,  with  advancing  manhood  and  increasing 
distance  from  the  time  of  the  events,  he  is  less 
and  less  concerned  with  the  genealogies  of 
Joseph  and  Mary,  with  the  miracles  of  water 
and  wine,  with  the  physical  healings,  with  the 
bare  facts  of  the  Gospel  narratives;  and  he  is 
more  and  more  concerned  with  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  the  parables  of  the  Master,  the 
closing  chapters  of  St.  John,  the  spirit  of 
Jesus,  the  Way,  the  Truth,  the  Life,  that  has 
passed  on  into  soul  after  soul  and  nation  after 
nation.  Born  of  a  virgin  or  born  in  the  course 
of  nature,  cradled  in  a  manger  or  cradled  in 
the  arms  of  the  Sphinx,  disputing  with  the  doc 
tors  or  playing  with  the  children  of  Nazareth 
— it  is  all  one  to  the  man  of  today,  and  all  very 
true,  and  beautiful. 

The  important  thing  is  that  Jesus  was  there 
and  that  Jesus  is  here.  The  modern  man  needs 
not  to  be  assured  that  Jesus  was  divine,  he 
needs  to  be  shown  that  He  was  human.  He 
has  an  overwhelming  consciousness  of  the 
Deity  residing  in  Christ.  His  natural  cry  is: 
"  Depart  from  me,  for  I  am  a  sinful  man,  O 


152    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

Lord."  He  needs  an  increasing  sense  of  the 
humanity  in  Jesus.  He  needs  to  hear  the 
word,  "  It  is  I,  be  not  afraid." 

The  line  of  reasoning  so  long  ago  set  forth 
by  Professor  Young  in  his  little  book,  "  The 
Christ  of  History,"  has  an  overpowering 
weight  for  the  mind  of  the  average  man  im 
pelling  him  to  the  conclusion  that  Jesus  is 
divine.  It  is  the  line  that  the  mind  follows 
automatically.  It  waives  all  questions  of  mir 
acle  and  inspiration;  it  leaves  these  matters 
undebated  and  undetermined.  It  takes  the 
Gospel  narratives  as  substantially  correct,  in 
historical  detail;  considers  that  such  a  person 
as  Jesus  lived,  spoke  practically  the  words 
ascribed  to  Him,  through  a  period  of  about 
three  years,  and  was  martyred.  More  than 
this  it  is  not  necessary  to  claim.  Less  than  this 
it  is  impossible,  without  dethroning  all  con 
temporary  history,  to  maintain.  From  such 
easily  accepted  ground,  the  reasoning  proceeds 
about  as  follows : 

The  circumstances  of  Jesus'  birth  and  life 
utterly  fail  to  account  for  His  achievements 
and  His  impression  on  the  world  without  some 
mysterious,  some  inexplicable  element  in  His 
nature.  For  example,  He  was  poor,  a  hand 
worker.  To  be  sure  poverty  may  be  dignified, 
handwork  dignifying;  but,  to  say  the  least,  it 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    153 

is  not  conducive  to  intellectual  achievement. 
Some  men  have  lifted  themselves  upward  from 
handwork  to  mental  eminence,  but  always  with 
one  hand  on  the  loom  or  plane,  and  the  other 
on  a  book.  But  Jesus  had  no  books,  no  schools, 
no  universities.  "  How  hath  this  man  learn 
ing,  having  never  learned  ?  " 

Again,  His  youth  and  the  shortness  of  His 
career  utterly  fail  to  account  for  the  magnitude 
of  His  figure  in  the  world.  Some  world  con 
querors  have  been  young.  Some  heads  of 
great  governments  and  crusades;  but  bear  in 
mind  that  their  achievements  were  purely  prac 
tical  in  character,  at  the  most  political;  while 
Jesus'  eminence  was  intellectual,  spiritual,  re 
ligious.  The  great  saints  and  sages  and  philos 
ophers  have  been  elderly  men  before  reaching 
an  all-powerful  dominion  over  men.  Young 
men  for  action,  old  men  for  wisdom.  Further 
more,  He  taught  only  eighteen  months  10  three 
years,  never  outside  of  the  little  strip  of  land 
called  Palestine,  never  wrote  a  line  to  leave 
behind,  and  lives  as  no  other  lives  in  the  minds 
and  hearts  of  myriads  of  men.  Who  was 
He? 

So  the  argument  might  be  carried  forward 
until  the  appeal  is  made  to  the  testimony  of 
Christ  Himself.  Surely  one  who  shows  so 
much  weight  with  the  world  should  be  given 


154    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

some  weight  with  regard  to  Himself,  His  own 
origin,  and  purpose  in  the  world.  He  says, 
"Which  one  of  you  convicteth  me  of  sin?" 
He  says :  "  I  and  my  Father  are  one.  I  do  al 
ways  those  things  that  please  my  Father.  He 
that  hath  seen  me  hath  seen  the  Father."  He 
accepts  the  confession  of  Simon  Peter,  "  Thou 
art  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God,"  and 
the  glad  exclamation  of  Thomas,  "  My  Lord 
and  my  God !  " 

Could  He  have  been  mistaken,  deluded,  flat 
tered  as  the  Roman  Emperors  were  flattered, 
into  a  belief  in  His  Deity?  If  so  it  were  a 
grievous  fault!  And  it  would  also  be  incon 
sistent  with  the  sobriety,  balance,  poise,  of  all 
His  sayings  and  doings.  Furthermore,  it 
would  be  necessary  that  the  idea  of  the  divine 
revelation  of  God  in  human  form  should  first 
be  in  the  minds  of  the  flatterers  before  it  could 
be  planted  in  His  own.  Such  an  idea  was  far 
from  their  thoughts.  They  wanted  Him  for 
an  earthly  sovereign,  and  so  thought  of  Him. 
To  fabricate  the  notion  of  the  divine  Christ  of 
God,  one  would  have  to  be  a  religious  genius 
indeed,  would  have  to  be  the  equal  of  Christ, 
would  have  to  be  the  Christ  Himself. 

So  runs  the  mind  of  the  common  man  re 
garding  Jesus.  He  thinks  of  Him  as  the  in 
carnation  of  God.  He  believes  it  reasonable 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    155 

that  if  there  is  a  God,  and  he  knows  there  is, 
He  would  seek  to  reveal  Himself  to  His  child, 
man.  Just  as  rapidly  as  man  was  able  to  ap 
preciate  His  qualities,  so  rapidly  would  the 
Father  unfold  Himself  to  the  Son.  It  is  an 
interesting  fact,  and  a  very  convenient  one 
upon  which  to  reason,  that  the  life  of  the  race 
is  very  much  like  the  life  of  an  individual. 
The  old  English  dramatist  said: 

"All  the  world's  a  stage, 
And  all  the  men  and  women  merely  players; 
They  have  their  exits  and  their  entrance's, 
And  one  man  in  his  time  plays  many  parts, 
His  acts  being  seven  ages." 

These  seven  ages  are  just  as  marked  in  the 
history  of  mankind,  or  seventy  ages,  for  the 
matter  of  that,  as  they  are  in  the  individual : 
the  race  had  its  infancy,  just  as  the  child.  And 
yet  the  race  has  never  been  in  such  unconscious 
condition,  so  far  as  we  know,  that  it  was  not 
aware  of  its  kinship  to  its  parent — its  Maker 
— its  God.  It  has  felt,  always,  and  in  every 
place,  since  man  became  a  conscious,  respon 
sible  agent,  that  it  was  allied  to  God,  to  a 
power  not  itself,  which  makes  for  righteous 
ness. 

Naturally  God,  in  His  dealing  with  such  a 
race,  could  not  reveal  Himself,  to  the  fullest, 
in  its  days  of  infancy;  just  as  the  parent  deal- 


156    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

ing  with  his  child  does  not  reveal  himself  fully 
in  the  days  of  that  little  one's  infancy.  The 
mother  shows  the  child  her  love,  from  the  very 
beginning,  and  she  shows  it  her  authority;  but 
she  cannot,  until  the  child  reaches  the  age  of 
responsibility,  reveal  to  it  her  reason,  her  per 
severance,  her  courage,  her  knowledge  of  its 
capacities  and  its  difficulties — a  thousand  and 
one  things  which,  with  advancing  years,  she 
does  fully  and  freely  unfold. 

God  dealt  with  the  race  in  just  the  same 
way.  We  find  that  aboriginal  men  looked  out 
into  the  world  about  them,  and  saw  the  same 
evidences  of  God  that  the  refined  and  polished 
moderns  find.  They  looked  upon  the  moun 
tains,  and  they  felt  that  God  resided  there.  If 
they  were  plains  people,  they  looked  up  at  the 
sun  and  the  stars,  and  worshipped  these.  If 
they  were  an  agricultural  people,  they  wor 
shipped  the  great  river  which  brought,  in  its 
turgid  stream,  the  rich  alluvial  deposit  from 
far-distant  sections,  and  laid  it  to  fertilize  the 
soil  which  supported  them ;  it  was  natural  that 
Egypt  worshipped  the  Nile.  They  built  their 
temples  to  the  sun,  high  up  on  the  mountain 
tops,  where  the  slanting  rays  of  early  morning 
touched  them  first,  and  where  the  rosy-fingered 
sunset  laid  its  hand  upon  them  last.  God  they 
saw  in  the  light  of  setting  suns,  the  round 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    157 

ocean,  and  the  living  air,  the  blue  sky,  and  ulti 
mately  they  saw  Him  in  the  mind  of  man. 

As  time  went  on,  they  personified  these 
forces  of  nature,  and  made  their  Gods  human 
in  form  and  appearance,  like  themselves.  So 
arose  the  heroes  and  the  demigods  of  the 
classic  peoples.  Men  felt  kinship  between 
themselves  and  God,  and  they  cried  out,  in  dim, 
distant,  past  ages,  to  Him :  "  What  is  man, 
that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him,  and  the  son  of 
man,  that  Thou  visitest  him  ?  Thou  hast  made 
him  a  little  lower  than  God,  and  hast  crowned 
him  with  glory  and  honor."  Feeling  the  di 
vine  spark  within  them,  recognizing  the  pres 
ence  of  divinity  in  their  own  lives,  they  were 
finding  rapidly  the  truth. 

God  was  revealing  Himself  to  them  in  them 
selves;  in  the  movements  of  their  tribes,  and 
their  nations;  in  the  events  of  their  histories. 
And  so  we  find  God  still  revealed,  do  we  not, 
in  the  lives  of  individual  men?  Do  you  ven 
ture  to  say  that,  now  and  then,  one  cannot  see 
the  reflection  of  God  in  the  face  of  a  man  ?  Do 
you  say  that  there  are  no  reflections  of  the 
Eternal  in  the  lives  of  temporal  men  and 
women  ? 

David  and  Jonathan  showed  something  of 
the  divine  in  their  heroic  relations  one  to  an 
other;  so  did  Isaiah  and  his  sons;  and  so 


158    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

Socrates  and  his  pupil  Plato,  Confucius  and 
Lao-Tsze,  Buddha,  Zoroaster,  Damon  and 
Pythias,  Judas  Maccabeus.  The  earth  opened 
in  the  forum  in  Rome  at  one  time,  so  goes  the 
old  legend.  A  great  chasm  was  in  the  midst 
between  two  hills,  and  it  seemed  as  if  the  earth 
would  burst  wide  open  and  all  its  people  be 
engulfed.  The  wise  men  and  the  priests  said, 
"If  there  is  some  young,  strong  hero,  who 
dares  to  plunge  into  this  gulf  and  give  his  life 
for  the  people,  it  will  close,  and  all  shall  be 
saved."  And  was  it  not  Marcus  Curtius,  upon 
his  horse,  who  leaped  without  hesitation  into 
the  abyss,  and  gave  his  life  for  the  salvation 
of  his  people?  True  or  false,  the  story  never 
theless  has  in  it  the  ring  of  the  divine, — an 
advanced  reflection  of  the  atonement  in  the 
sacrifice  of  one  for  others. 

That  sort  of  thing  is  modern  as  well  as 
ancient.  A  woman  wrote  to  the  medical  col 
lege  in  St.  Louis,  some  time  since,  that  her 
husband  was  sick,  out  of  work,  her  children 
starving;  that  a  few  more  days  would  tell  the 
tale  for  her  and  them;  and  would  the  medical 
college  give  her  three  hundred  dollars  for  her 
body?  A  tactless  woman,  looking  upon  a 
French  soldier  in  the  hospital,  his  face  half  shot 
away,  murmured  audibly,  "  What  a  terrible 
disfigurement!"  "No,  madam,"  answered 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    159 

the  patient,  "a  decoration !  "  There  are  flashes 
of  the  divine  to  be  seen  every  day  and  all 
around  us,  like  lightning  on  a  dark  summer 
night. 

"  A  picket  frozen  on  duty, 
A  mother  starved  for  her  brood; 
Socrates  drinking  the  hemlock, 
And  Jesus  on  the  rood; 
And  millions  who,  humble  and  nameless, 
The  straight  hard  pathway  trod; — 
Some  call  it  consecration, 
And  others  call  it  God ! " 

It  appears,  then,  the  most  reasonable  thing 
in  the  world  that,  if  the  Father  should  set  out 
deliberately  to  show  Himself  to  man,  He  would 
adopt,  would  He  not,  for  His  full  and  final 
revelation,  the  form  of  a  man.  This  is  a  book 
that  all  men  could  understand.  Not  in  sacred 
writings,  not  in  the  utterances  of  prophets, 
however  inspired,  was  God  to  be  finally  re 
vealed  to  man;  not  in  the  systems  of  sages  and 
philosophers,  however  beautiful  and  profound; 
not  in  the  wild  imaginings  of  erratic  men,  first 
and  last,  could  God  be  reflected  adequately  to 
the  minds  of  men.  There  are  some  who  could 
not  understand  the  prophets;  some  who  could 
not  grasp  the  philosophers ;  some  who  could  not 
follow  the  intricacies  of  the  magicians  of  hu 
man  thought  and  human  knowledge ;  some  who 
could  not  read  a  book;  but  there  are  none  who 


160    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

could  not  understand  a  human  being,  in  so  far 
as  a  human  being  can  show  himself  and  can 
be  read  and  known.  Even  a  child  can  read 
a  face.  How  it  will  respond  to  the  divine  that 
shines  in  some  countenances,  and  be  attracted, 
and  give  itself  unreservedly  into  the  arms  of 
even  imperfect  divinity! 

Therefore  humanity  cried  out  for  a  man,  to 
show  God  to  them ;  and  in  the  fulness  of  time 
God  heard  and  answered  that  human  cry. 
There  is  a  beautiful  story  in  Exodus  of  Moses' 
desire  to  see  God ;  but  the  law  was  that  a  man 
could  not  look  upon  God  and  live;  no  doubt 
that  was  literally  true.  The  race  was  not  old 
enough,  the  race  was  not  developed  enough  to 
look  upon  God  and  to  comprehend  Him — its 
intellect  undoubtedly  would  break  down — it 
would  fail  utterly  to  conceive  and  grasp  the 
picture  of  God  if  presented  to  it.  So,  we 
are  told,  Moses  was  put  into  the  cleft  of  a 
rock.  God  put  His  hand  over  him,  and  passed 
by  the  chasm,  allowing  Moses  to  see  His  re 
treating  form.  The  story  is  attractive,  because 
so  true  with  regard  to  half -developed,  half- 
trained,  half-educated  peoples.  These  peoples 
were  not  ready  yet  to  see  God  in  the  form  of 
man.  It  took  the  fulness  of  the  times  for  the 
world  to  be  prepared  for  this  vision — this 
revelation. 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    161 

Therefore  just  at  the  moment  when  Israel 
was  about  to  be  crushed  and  destroyed  and 
scattered  all  over  the  world,  to  create  its  syna 
gogues  in  every  nation,  with  a  platform  pre 
pared  for  the  proclamation  of  this  new  revela 
tion  of  God;  just  at  the  moment  when  the 
Greek  language,  the  most  subtle  and  the  most 
delicate  of  all  the  languages  of  all  time,  was 
scattered  far  and  wide  as  the  language  of  com 
merce,  of  government,  of  diplomacy;  just  at 
the  moment  when  Rome  was  at  her  greatest 
power,  when  peace  was  spread  like  a  mantle 
over  the  known  world ;  when  the  Roman  roads 
rolled  like  wide,  white  ribbons  from  the  golden 
milestone  in  the  forum,  protected  from  end  to 
end  by  Roman  legionaries;  when  Rome  had 
dethroned  her  gods;  when  she  was  feeling  in 
the  dark  if  haply  she  might  find  something  to 
take  their  place ;  at  that  moment,  in  the  fulness 
of  the  time,  as  we  can  look  back  now  and 
plainly  see,  God  sent  His  Son  into  the  world. 
This  was  the  answer  to  the  demand  of  man  that 
he  see  God  in  human  form — the  only  book  that 
all  men,  everywhere,  could  read  and  under 
stand.  This  is  the  incarnation. 

Now,  the  common  man  is  not  concerned  to 
answer  the  question:  How  was  Jesus  divine, 
and  how  was  He  human?  how  much  divine  and 
how  much  human?  He  has  no  scalpel  keen 


162    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

enough  to  dissect  Him,  no  balance  delicate 
enough  to  weigh  Him,  no  acid-test,  no  test-tube 
fine  enough  to  distil  and  analyze  Him. 

The  divineness  of  humanity  is  not  a  difficulty 
in  the  way  of  grasping  and  accepting  the 
divinity  of  Christ,  but,  on  the  contrary,  a 
great  aid.  Man  knows  that  he  has  the  spark 
of  divine  in  him.  We  hear  people  proclaiming 
it  today  as  if  it  were  something  new  and 
strange.  But  man  has  always  known  it.  He 
knows  he  was  made  in  the  image  of  God.  Yet 
he  recognizes  his  own  failure.  He  knows  that 
he  has  marred  and  scarred  that  image ;  that  he 
has  defaced  it,  and  at  times  well-nigh  de- 
destroyed  it.  There  is  nothing  he  is  quite  so 
conscious  of  as  the  fact  that  he  has  not  lived 
up  to  his  parentage ;  that  he  is  the  unworthy  son 
of  a  worthy  Father. 

Let  man,  then,  look  at  one  who  is  not  a 
failure — at  Jesus  Christ  of  Nazareth,  tempted 
in  all  points  like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin; 
perfect,  spotless,  conscious,  all  the  time,  of  the 
unity  and  harmony  between  Himself  and  His 
Father ;  "  I  do  always  the  things  which  please 
my  Father ;  the  Father  and  I  are  one ; "  with 
no  broken  communion  between  Him  and  His 
Father ;  with  no  veil  hanging  between  Him  and 
His  Father's  face;  with  no  gulf  yawning  be 
tween  Him  and  His  Father;  but  with  free,  con- 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    163 

slant,  unbroken  communion  between  Him  and 
His  Father,  a  perfect  fellowship  and  comrade 
ship!  When  we  look  upon  that — His  sinless- 
ness,  and  His  consciousness  that  He,  and  He 
alone,  was  sent  into  the  world  to  redeem  and 
to  save  perplexed  and  distracted  and  lost  hu 
manity;  that  He  was  the  one  to  do  this  crying 
out :  "  I  am  the  Way,  and  the  Truth,  and  the 
Life :  No  man  cometh  unto  the  Father  but  by 
me :  Follow  thou  me :  Thy  sins  be  forgiven 
thee !  " — when  you  look  upon  that  face  of 
Jesus  Christ,  oh!  you  marred  and  broken  son 
of  God,  what  do  you  say? 

He  was  divine.  He  was  so  much  more 
divine  than  I  am  that  there  is  a  difference 
actually  in  kind  between  Him  and  me. 
The  quantitative  difference  is  so  great  that  it 
amounts  to  a  qualitative  difference;  and,  as  I 
look  upon  Him,  I  decrease  and  He  increases. 
He  is  the  son  of  God — the  express  revelation 
of  the  Father,  for,  what  God  is,  He  is.  When 
I  want  to  learn  of  God,  I  look  at  Him;  when 
I  want  to  pray  to  God,  I  think  of  Him.  His 
face  is  before  me  all  the  time,  and  He  is  the 
only  full  revelation  that  humanity  has.  Of 
course  He  is  divine!  He  is  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh. 

No,  the  man  in  the  street  needs  little  argu 
ment  to  convince  him  that  Jesus  is  divine.  He 


164    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

needs  much  to  show  him  that  Jesus  is  human. 
What  should  be  borne  in  upon  him  is  not  so 
much  the  divineness  of  Christ  as  the  divine- 
ness  of  man.  What  Jesus  was,  man  needs  to 
become.  Our  religion  should  be  not  less 
Christo-centric,  but  more  Jesus-centric,  more 
man-centric.  The  incarnation  of  God  in  Christ 
was  but  the  beginning  of  His  revelation.  It 
must  be  completed  in  man. 

So,  it  follows  that  Jesus  must  be  born  again, 
must  come  again.  God  must  be  revealed  again. 
Continuously  and  progressively  must  this  beau 
tiful  birth  go  on  within  the  hearts  and  lives 
of  men ;  for,  where  a  man  takes  Jesus  Christ 
into  him,  that  man  not  merely  is  born  again; 
but  Christ  lives  again.  God  is  revealed  again. 
This  is  the  Second  Coming  of  Christ.  This  is 
the  Advent. 

We  sang,  at  the  Gypsy  Smith  meetings  in 
America,  a  few  years  since,  the  old  Welsh 
hymn,  couched  in  the  oldest  phraseology  of 
the  oldest  orthodoxy :  "  The  Spirit  answers 
with  the  blood,  and  tells  me  I  am  born  of 
God."  Some  of  us  have  heard  the  lilt  and 
swing  of  those  lines  and  that  theme,  all  through 
the  months  that  have  followed;  and,  while  we 
have  realized  all  the  time  that  those  are  old, 
old  words,  and  old,  old  conceptions,  we  have 
realized  increasingly  their  truth,  their  value, 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?     165 

and  their  message  to  the  most  modern 
day — their  perfect  harmony  with  the  most  sci 
entific  and  liberal  thinking  of  the  present  age. 
The  Spirit  of  God  answers  to  the  sacrifice  of 
Jesus  Christ,  and  re-echoes  in  my  soul,  if  I  am 
born  of  God,  to  tell  me  that  I  am  His  child,  a 
member  of  His  family,  a  son  of  God,  and  joint 
heir  with  Jesus  Christ.  The  old  conceptions  of 
the  Church,  handed  down  through  all  the  cen 
turies,  shall  not  altogether  be  swept  away.  The 
consciousness  that  we  have  had  of  the  divine 
presence  of  Jesus,  in  history,  is  with  us  yet, 
and  the  confidence  that  we  have  in  Him.  If  we 
take  Him  into  our  lives,  become  one  with  Him, 
in  harmony  with  Him,  imitate,  so  far  as  it  is 
possible  for  us  to  do,  all  His  qualities,  drinking 
of  the  waters  of  life  which  He  said  He  gave 
to  us  freely,  answering  the  call  which  He  gave 
to  us  all,  "  Come  unto  me,  all  ye  that  labor 
and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest " 
— if  we  do  these  things,  Christ  is  born  again 
within  us — Christ  in  you — the  hope  of  glory! 
No,  the  difficulty  is  not  that  men  do  not  think 
well  about  Christ.  It  is  that  they  do  not  do  so 
well  as  they  think.  The  vital  question  to  be 
addressed  to  them  is  not,  "  What  think  ye  of 
Christ?  "  but,  "  What  will  ye  do  with  the  man 
called  Jesus?"  Right  thinking  is  important, 
but  it  is  valueless  until  coined  into  life.  In 


166    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

point  of  fact,  no  thought  is  really  ours,  no 
truth  can  be  possessed  by  us,  except  as  that 
thought,  that  truth  enters  into  our  lives.  Not 
only  spiritual  truth,  but  all  truth,  must  be 
spiritually  discerned.  There  is  no  such  thing 
as  purely  mental  truth.  It  is  not  the  scholar, 
knowing  a  lexicon,  who  knows  a  language.  It 
is  the  man  into  whose  life  the  language  has 
entered.  It  is  not  necessarily  the  owner  of  a 
picture-gallery  or  a  park  who  really  owns  these 
things  of  beauty;  but  it  is  the  art  student  or 
the  common  man  into  whose  soul  the  message 
of  the  canvas  or  the  hillside  has  entered  and 
become  a  part  of  him,  a  joy  forever,  that  is 
the  real  owner. 

"  He  that  willeth  to  do  my  will,"  said  the 
Master,  "  shall  know  of  the  doctrine ; "  and 
no  words  more  in  harmony  with  the  laws  of 
mind  and  life  ever  were  spoken.  It  is  not  the 
man  who  knows  the  letter  of  Scripture,  not  the 
theologian  who  has  mentally  grasped  the  sys 
tems,  but  the  worshipper  who  has  opened  his 
heart  and  life  to  the  Master  Himself,  that  shall 
know  the  doctrine  of  Christ.  You  have  known 
many  a  man,  who  they  said  was  "  deep  in 
Bible,"  to  use  an  old  phrase,  whose  heart  was 
as  hard  and  dry  and  bitter  as  a  peach-stone, 
who  had  not  learned  the  alphabet  of  the  Gos 
pel,  had  not  mastered  the  rudiments  of  the 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    167 

thirteenth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians.  And, 
vice  versa,  you  may  have  known  many  a  hum 
ble  wayfarer,  though  simple,  whose  soul  was 
steeped  in  God,  and  whose  eyes  were  open  to 
the  truth  of  Scripture. 

There  was  an  old  hunter  and  trapper  who 
lived  some  years  since  in  a  canon  in  the  Santa 
Ynez  mountains  near  Santa  Barbara.  His 
name  was  Bush — appropriate  to  his  calling  and 
his  environment.  His  cabin  was  a  dozen  miles 
or  so  from  town.  One  night,  on  a  rare  visit 
to  civilization,  he  heard  the  drum-beat  of  the 
Salvation  Army  and  followed  it.  The  natural 
religion  within  him  sprang  up  and  flowered. 
He  wanted,  after  frequent  visits  to  the  bar 
racks,  to  volunteer.  But  the  army  could  not 
admit  him  until  he  gave  up  his  tobacco.  He 
readily  rid  himself  of  swearing — the  only  other 
besetting  sin  of  which  the  old  man  was  aware; 
and  he  struggled  manfully  to  rid  himself  also 
of  his  plug.  But  in  the  loneliness  of  his  little 
mountain  home,  he  would  take  it  out,  turn  it 
over  in  his  hands,  caress  it,  and  at  last  sink 
his  teeth  into  it. 

One  day  he  came  down  to  the  little  brick 
ivy-covered  church  near  the  seashore.  They 
took  him  in  and  baptized  him,  tobacco  and  all, 
in  the  surf  of  the  Blue  Pacific.  Every  Sunday 
he  was  at  service;  every  Wednesday  night  he 


168    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

trudged  the  twelve  miles  in  to  prayer  meeting 
and  the  twelve  miles  back.  There  are  those  who 
can  remember  the  broken,  stumbling,  ungram- 
matical  prayers  he  made,  the  passages  of 
Scripture  he  used  to  quote, — or  misquote, — for 
he  never  got  one  right.  But  if  ever  there  was 
a  true  follower  of  the  Son  of  God,  it  was  he. 
Out  of  the  mouths  of  babes  and  sucklings! 

Of  course  no  man  can  understand  the  Bible 
unless  he  yields  himself  to  God.  Of  course  no 
man  can  understand  the  mystery  of  Christ  un 
less  he  yields  himself  in  glad  and  loving  sur 
render.  No  man  can  understand  Chaucer, 
Shakespeare,  Goethe,  Dante,  until  he  puts  him 
self  in  harmony  with  the  great  singer.  No 
man  can  appreciate  music,  a  song,  a  story,  or  a 
sermon,  except  in  so  far  as  he  surrenders  him 
self  to  the  message  and  the  messenger.  This  is 
the  law.  Says  Mr.  Kipling: 

"  These  are  the  laws  of  the  jungle, 
And  many  and  mighty  are  they; 
But- the  head  and  the  hoof  of  the  law, 
And  the  haunch  and  the  hump  is — obey !  " 

That,  too,  is  the  law  of  the  jungles  of  the  inner 
life. 

Now  it  is  possible,  no  doubt,  to  obey  Christ 
all  by  one's  self,  without  comradeship,  fellow 
ship,  or  church.  There  were  those  who  fol 
lowed  Him  afar  off.  Perhaps  there  still  are. 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    169 

But  this  is  an  extremely  difficult  thing  to  do, 
and  there  are  few  that  compass  it.  For  it  is 
so  easy  to  lose  sight  of  Him  in  the  distance,  at 
a  turning,  in  the  crowds.  It  is  the  last  thing 
we  should  dare  to  say  that  no  man  can  be  a 
Christian  without  joining  a  church.  Doubt 
less  there  are  many  who  serve  Him  without 
publicly  naming  His  name.  But  these  put  a 
heavy  handicap  upon  themselves,  work  against 
great  odds,  drag  their  sledge  over  sand  and 
gravel  where  they  might  have  snow  and  easier 
going. 

The  Church  has  no  monopoly  on  Christ  and 
God,  to  be  sure.  The  Father's  love  cannot  be 
cornered.  But  certain  it  is  that  far  and  away 
the  majority  of  those  who  seek  to  be  near  Him 
are  in  the  church.  It  is  good  business  to  go 
where  the  most  business  in  our  line  is  being 
done — birds  of  a  feather.  That  man  makes  a 
grave  mistake  who  isolates  himself  from  his 
fellows  of  similar  bent.  No  man  is  strong 
enough  to  live  alone,  and  die  alone — it  is  not 
good  for  man.  He  needs  sympathy,  under 
standing,  fellowship  in  his  high  aims.  He  is 
a  gregarious  creature. 

This  is  why,  perhaps,  sheep  are  used  so  often 
in  sacred  scripture  to  signify  men.  Humanity 
flocks  as  sheep  do.  They  both  need  shepherd 
ing.  They  are  lost  alone.  Though  they  walk 


170       WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death — 
a  narrow,  rocky  gorge  down  Jericho  way, 
south  of  Jerusalem — they  will  fear  evil  unless 
some  one  be  with  them.  If  they  are  to  find 
green  pastures,  they  must  be  led  to  them. 
They  are  imitative,  and  feed  always  with  heads 
in  the  same  direction. 

With  increasing  sophistication  there  is  in 
creasing  independence  of  spirit;  and  yet 
strange  as  it  may  seem,  by  the  increasing  com 
plexity  of  society,  there  is  forced  upon  its 
members  increasing  dependence  as  well.  There 
is  a  constantly  growing  friction  between  the 
man  and  his  environment.  His  freedom  can 
come  to  him  only  with  his  service  to  society. 
The  phrase  of  the  prayer  book  is  most  illumi 
nating,  when,  referring  to  God,  it  adds : 
"  Whose  service  is  perfect  freedom."  Our  true 
independence  never  comes  to  us  except  in  serv 
ice,  subjection  of  will,  subordination  of  self. 

How  futile,  then,  become  our  little  declara 
tions  of  individual  independence!  Jesus  has 
put  the  whole  story  into  the  parable  of  the 
marriage  feast.  A  certain  king  prepared  sup 
per  for  his  son,  and  sent  out  his  invitations. 
Regrets,  for  the  most  part,  were  returned. 
One  said  he  had  bought  a  yoke  of  oxen  and 
must  go  and  prove  them,  try  them.  No  man 
who  has  handled  live  stock  ever  buys  first  and 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    171 

tries  afterward.  Subterfuge,  evidently.  An 
other  said  he  had  bought  a  piece  of  land  and 
must  go  and  look  at  it.  Bankruptcy  awaits 
the  real  estate  operator  who  works  in  such  a 
way.  Also  subterfuge.  The  third  said,  "  I 
have  married  a  wife  and  therefore  cannot 
come."  Most  evident  subterfuge  of  all;  for 
what  place  more  appropriate  to  take  a  happy 
bride  than  to  the  marriage  supper  of  a  prince? 
Consummate  literary  artist  that  He  is,  Jesus 
has  put  not  one  legitimate  reason  into  the 
mouths  of  any  who  sent  regrets.  There  is  a 
very  clear  distinction  between  a  reason  and  an 
excuse.  When  you  invite  a  man  to  dinner  and 
he  declines,  you  know  usually  very  well  whether 
he  assigns  reason  or  excuse. 

"  Excuses  are  clothes,  which,  asked  unawares, 
Good  breeding  to  naked  necessity  spares." 

Most  so-called  reasons  that  men  give  for  not 
answering  openly  the  call  of  Christ  are  only 
excuses  and  no  reasons  at  all.  They,  and  the 
possible  answers  to  them,  run  like  this : 

I  don't  know  enough.  Enough  what?  O, 
Scripture,  doctrine,  the  rules  of  the  Church. 
Do  you  know  Christ,  love  Christ,  want  to  fol 
low  Christ?  That  is  enough.  More  than  this 
no  man  has  the  right  to  ask  of  you.  Less  than 
this  few  men  in  this  Christian  land  possess. 


172    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

I  know  too  much.  I  have  read  books :  Hux 
ley,  Darwin,  Herbert  Spencer.  I  know  too 
much  to  accept  your  Bible  and  your  Church. 
But  do  you  know  Christ?  It  is  not  enough  to 
know  all  these  others,  who  themselves  would 
be  the  first  to  declare  their  own  ignorance.  Do 
you  know  the  beauties  and  the  secrets  of  love, 
sacrifice,  heroism,  death  for  others?  You  are 
not  of  much  account  in  the  world  if  you  know 
too  much  to  be  willing  to  die  for  some  cause, 
some  one,  some  ideal.  No,  you  do  not  know 
too  much  but  rather  too  little. 

I  am  not  sure  that  I  believe.  Believe  what  ? 
Well,  the  doctrines  of  the  future  life,  reward, 
punishment;  free-will,  f oreordination ;  certain 
of  the  doctrines  of  the  Church.  Could  you 
makes  Peter's  confession  of  faith,  "  I  believe 
that  Jesus  is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living 
God,"  interpreting  it  for  yourself?  Yes,  I 
could  do  that.  Then  that  is  sufficient.  It  is  all 
the  Church  has  a  right  to  exact  of  you.  It 
is  all  that  most  churches  would  exact.  General 
Lew  Wallace,  in  his  "  Prince  of  India,"  puts 
it  into  the  mouth  of  a  monk  of  the  Middle 
Ages  to  propound  this  creed  as  a  basis  for  the 
union  of  Christendom :  "  I  believe  that  Jesus 
is  the  Christ,  the  Son  of  the  living  God."  That 
is  not  Lew  Wallace's  creed ;  it  is  not  Simon  of 
Bethsaida's  creed;  it  is  God  Almighty's  creed; 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    173 

for  Jesus  said :  "  Blessed  art  them,  Simon  bar- 
Jonah,  for  flesh  and  blood  hath  not  revealed 
it  unto  thee,  but  my  Father  who  is  in  heaven." 
That  ought  to  be  enough  for  any  church, 
enough  for  any  man. 

I  do  not  feel  just  right  about  joining  a 
church.  Suppose  you  had  a  dinner  invitation 
and  responded  that  you  did  not  feel  right  about 
coming.  Your  host  would  say,  "  Are  you 
angry  with  me  ?  "  "  No."  "  Oh,  you  are 
ill?  "  "  No."  "  What  then?  "  "  I  can't  ex 
plain,  but  I  do  not  feel  right."  Is  the  excuse 
absurd  ?  But  no,  not  altogether.  The  Church 
may  be  to  blame  for  giving  you  the  impression 
that  you  had  to  feel  some  subtle,  intangible, 
mysterious  upheaval  of  the  soul  that  would 
indicate  to  you  the  movings  of  divine  grace — 
whatever  that  is.  But  the  acceptance  of  Christ 
is  a  thing  not  of  feeling  but  of  will.  "  He  that 
willeth  to  do  my  will."  Will  you,  or  will  you 
not? 

I  am  not  good  enough.  Precisely  the  reason 
you  need  Christ  and  His  Church.  He  came  not 
to  call  the  righteous.  You  need  sympathy, 
support,  friendship,  fellowship,  the  unity  of 
the  body  of  Christ. 

I  am  too  good.  Nobody  ever  makes  that 
excuse,  you  say  ?  It  is  one  of  the  most  frequent 
of  all.  It  is  not  put  in  just  those  words,  but 


174    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

it  amounts  to  that  in  substance.  This  is  the 
way  it  is  stated:  I  am  better  than  many  of  the 
men  in  the  Church.  There  are  liars,  and 
cheats,  hypocrites,  and  rascals  in  the  Church. 
I  know  who  they  are.  I  am  better  than  those 
men.  I'll  not  go  into  a  church  where  they  are. 
I'll  not  join  a  church  that  has  such  people  in  it. 

Listen,  friend,  to  the  Master :  Two  men 
went  up  to  the  temple  to  pray.  One  of  them,  a 
Pharisee,  stood  and  prayed  thus  with  himself : 
"  God,  I  thank  Thee  that- 1  am  not  as  other  men 
are — nor  as  this  publican  here.  I  give  tithes. 
I  fast.  I  do  not  do  as  some  other  men  I 
know."  The  publican  lay  with  his  face  on  the 
sanded  floor  of  the  temple  and  prayed :  "  Lord, 
have  mercy  upon  me  a  sinner !  "  Who  was 
the  Pharisee,  the  hypocrite  in  this  case?  Was 
it  not  he  who  pointed  the  finger  at  his  fellow- 
man — no  matter  who  he  was — and  thanked 
God  that  he  was  not  like  him? 

And  who  are  you,  sir,  that  dares  point  the 
finger  of  judgment  at  any  fellow-man,  no  mat 
ter  where  nor  who  he  is !  What  do  you  know 
of  the  cry  of  his  soul  for  help  in  mastering 
temptations  the  strength  of  which  you,  in  your 
smug  self -righteousness,  have  never  known? 
He  is  in  the  Church  because  he  needs  and 
knows  he  needs  help — a  Power  not  himself  that 
makes  for  righteousness.  Thou  Pharisee, 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    175 

thou  hypocrite,  thou  whited  sepulchre,  down 
with  that  accusing  finger,  and  never  let  that 
excuse,  that  vainglorious,  self -laudatory,  hypo 
critical,  damnable  lie  soil  your  lips  again. 

Still  unconvinced,  the  cringing  censor  justi 
fies  himself  thus :  "  But  I  do  not  profess  any 
thing,  and  he  does." 

The  follower  of  Christ  professes  nothing. 
He  confesses  much.  He  is  no  "  professor  of 
religion."  That  is  a  mistaken  bit  of  old  phrase 
ology.  He  is  a  confessor.  He  confesses  he  is 
a  sinner,  which  is  more  than  you  do.  He  con 
fesses  Christ  is  his  Saviour.  You  profess  to 
be  your  own  saviour.  He  confesses  he  needs 
the  help  of  other  men  and  women,  you  pro 
fess  to  be  strong  enough  to  stand  alone. 

"  Ah,  but  there  is  a  difference,"  he  con 
tinues.  "  A  man  outside  the  Church  may  do 
many  things  that  a  man  inside  the  Church  may 
not  do."  What,  pray?  and  why,  pray?  Are 
there  two  standards  of  right  and  wrong,  one 
for  churchmen  and  one  for  outsiders?  Are 
there  two  moral  laws,  one  for  the  Christian 
and  one  for  the  worldling?  The  position  is 
indefensible,  hypocritical,  absurd.  There  is 
nothing  a  man  has  the  right  to  do  outside  the 
Church  that  he  has  not  equal  right  to  do 
inside.  There  is  nothing  that  is  wrong  for  a 
man  outside  the  Church  that  is  not  equally 


176    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

wrong  inside.  Both  are  in  the  world,  are  they 
not  ?  Both  are  in  society,  are  they  not  ?  Their 
obligations  are  just  as  great  and  binding  to 
their  fellow-men  in  one  case  as  the  other. 
Their  obligations  are  just  as  great  and  just  as 
binding  to  themselves  and  to  their  God,  upon 
one  as  upon  the  other.  No  man  can  escape  re 
sponsibility  by  remaining  out  of  the  Church. 
The  Church  is  designed  to  help  him  bear  re 
sponsibility. 

It  is  time  now  to  concede  that  there  are 
hypocrites  in  the  Church.  Some  one  has  said 
he  hopes  the  time  will  never  come  when  there 
are  not,  for  then  there  will  be  nothing  in  the 
Church  worth  imitating.  Imitation  is  the  sin- 
cerest  flattery. 

But  there  are  more  hypocrites,  two  to  one, 
outside  than  inside.  There  are  hypocrites  in 
the  lodge;  hypocrites  in  society;  hypocrites  in 
business,  shoals  of  them ;  hypocrites  in  politics, 
oceans  of  them;  hypocrites  in  universities,  in 
medicine,  law,  the  ministry.  The  difference  is 
that  men  inside  the  Church  are  trying  not  to 
be,  and  men  outside  often  are  not. 

Mack  Lucas  was  a  travelling  salesman.  He 
was  hard-drinking,  hard-swearing,  hard-deal 
ing,  hard-thinking.  He  was  hard  every  way. 
He  saw  the  faults  of  church- folk  and  would 
have  none  of  it  or  of  them.  At  last  a  minister, 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    177 

who  was  also  a  fellow-man,  got  under  Mack's 
shell,  and  after  so  long  a  time  the  hard  man 
softened  and  confessed  his  Lord.  He  was 
changed,  he  was  humbled.  One  night,  some 
months  after,  his  friend  and  pastor  met  Mack 
in  a  darkened  back  street  of  their  little  village, 
coming  from  the  railway  station,  toward  his 
home.  He  was  carrying  a  bundle  in  both  arms 
on  his  breast. 

"  What  have  you  there,  Mack  ?  " 

"A  baby,"  said  Mack,  half  defiantly,  half 
shamefacedly.  "  We've  always  wanted  one, 
my  wife  and  I.  But  I  reckon  I  wasn't  good 
enough  for  God  to  give  us  one.  Then  we  made 
up  our  minds  we'd  adopt  one." 

By  the  way,  adoption  is  the  finest  form  of 
charity. 

"  So,"  continued  Mack,  "  I  went  up  to  the 
orphans'  home  at  Sedalia  and  I  asked  them  to 
give  me  the  puniest,  scrawniest,  weakest,  most 
good-for-nothing  little  rat  they  had  in  the  lot. 
If  they'd  had  a  cross-eyed  one,  or  a  lame  one, 
that's  the  one  I'd  have  wanted.  I'm  not  good 
enough  to  have  a  real  healthy,  fat,  fine  one. 
So  they  gave  me  this,  and  I'm  taking  it  home." 

That  was  thirteen  years  ago,  or  thereabouts. 
The  other  day  I  saw,  with  my  friend  the  pastor, 
that  baby  girl,  with  her  high-school  braids 
down  her  back,  her  high-school  books  in  her 


178    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

hands.  She  was  the  daintiest,  prettiest,  trip- 
pingest  little  maiden  in  the  county  town.  And 
I  shook  hands  with  Mack,  the  gray  upon  his 
temples,  the  wrinkles  upon  his  face,  and  the 
laughter  and  the  light  of  God  in  his  clean  eyes. 

Of  such  is  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven.  It  re 
mains  for  the  Church  of  Christ  in  the  world  to 
gather  all  such  into  its  fold.  Nothing  less 
than  the  concentrated  effort  of  all  can  win  such 
as  these  into  its  arms. 

An  old  friend  of  mine  in  a  Middle  Western 
State,  gray  of  beard,  but  still  firm  of  hand, 
was  talking  reminiscently  of  pioneer  days. 
The  frontiersman's  blood  was  still  in  his  veins  ; 
for  it  was  not  long  after  this  conversation  that 
he  plunged  into  the  wilderness  again,  in  the 
Rainy  River  district  of  Canada.  Doubtless  he 
sleeps  under  its  wild,  wet,  tangled  grass  today, 
for  he  told  the  story  many  years  ago.  Said  he : 

"  I  used  to  herd  sheep  for  my  father,  and  I 
came  to  know  them  pretty  well,  and  so  did  he. 
We  were  fond  of  them,  too.  One  night  I 
brought  the  flock  up  from  the  big  pasture,  to 
shut  them  into  the  little  lot  for  the  night. 
Father  stood  by  the  gate  and  counted  them." 

Possibly  the  old  man  may  have  said  "  named 
them."  We  have  read,  have  we  not,  that 
"  The  good  shepherd  knoweth  his  own  sheep, 
and  calleth  them  all  by  name." 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    179 

"  When  they  had  all  passed  in,  my  father 
said: 

" '  There  is  one  sheep  missing,  son.' 

"  Then  he  told  me  to  go  down  one  side  of 
the  big  pasture,  and  he  would  go  down  the 
other.  We  did  so ;  and  we  found  the  one  sheep 
at  the  far  end.  It  was  dark  now,  and  cold. 
We  tried  to  drive  him,  but  he  kept  running 
back  to  the  fence  and  trying  to  get  through. 
You  can't  make  much  headway  driving  a  sheep. 
He  was  too  heavy  to  carry.  At  last  my  father 
said: 

"  '  Come,  son.    I  know  what  we  can  do.' 

"  So  back  up  to  the  barns  and  the  little  lot 
we  went,  opened  the  gates,  brought  the  whole 
flock  out,  took  them  nearly  a  mile  down  to 
the  far  side  of  the  big  pasture ;  and  we  had  no 
trouble  then  in  bringing  that  one  sheep 
home." 

Perhaps  the  old  man  saw  the  application  of 
his  story.  If  so,  he  said  nothing  more.  Per 
haps  the  Church  may  one  day  see  the  moral 
contained  in  it  and  act  upon  it.  God  grant  it 
may  be  so. 

The  pastor  of  a  church  in  the  suburbs  of 
Chicago,  Dr.  W.  S.  Abernethy,  baptized  a 
certain  boy  whose  name  was  Norman  Patter 
son.  The  lad  carried  newspapers  to  the  min 
ister's  house  and  neighborhood.  One  morn- 


180    WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST? 

ing  the  minister,  rising  early,  saw  the  boy  go 
past  on  the  run.  It  was  so  the  next  morning 
and  the  next.  The  preacher  determined  that 
next  day  he  would  stop  the  lad  and  inquire  the 
cause  of  his  haste.  To  his  inquiry,  Norman 
hurled  back  breathless  and  unintelligible  words. 
Next  day,  the  minister  spread  legs  and  arms 
across  the  pavement  and  brought  the  runner 
to  a  halt. 

"  Well,"  said  Norman,  "  I  am  running  to 
get  myself  in  training.  I  believe  I  can  run.  I 
would  like  to  go  to  Stockholm  for  the  inter 
national  Olympic  games,  and  I'm  going  to  try. 
I  believe  I  can  run." 

With  the  pastor's  advice  and  encouragement, 
he  went  to  the  Chicago  Athletic  Club  and 
sought  out  the  trainer,  Delaney,  saying,  "  I  be 
lieve  I  can  run ;  and  I  would  like  to  try  for  the 
team  that  is  going  to  Stockholm." 

"  What  have  you  made  the  mile  in  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  I've  never  tried ;  but  I  be 
lieve  I  can  run." 

"  Well,  haven't  you  any  idea  what  you  can 
run  a  mile  in?  The  record  is  four-fifteen  and 
two-fifths.  Percy  Taylor,  of  Cornell,  who  is 
to  run  here  next  week  in  the  preliminaries,  can 
make  four-twenty  and  holds  the  Eastern  inter 
collegiate  record.  Anderson,  of  Nebraska, 
who  will  also  run,  has  made  four-eighteen, 


WHAT  THINK  YE  OF  CHRIST?    181 

and  holds  the  Western  record.  What  do  you 
think  you  can  do  ?  " 

"  I  don't  know.  I  am  sure,  though,  that  I 
can  beat  those  fellows.  I  know  I  can  run." 

The  next  week,  the  lad,  who  had  never  put 
on  a  track-suit,  went  into  the  preliminaries  with 
those  old  veterans;  and  at  the  first  trial,  he 
held  his  own  with  both  of  them,  making  the 
mile  in  four  minutes  and  twenty  seconds.  At 
the  second  trial,  when  the  pace  grew  hotter,  he 
made  it  in  four,  two  and  four-fifths;  and 
held  the  world's  record  for  fifteen  minutes 
until  a  runner  in  New  York  clipped  off  a  frac 
tion  more.  But  Norman  Patterson  went  to 
Stockholm  and  wore  the  Stars  and  Stripes 
around  his  waist  because  he  had  got  it  into 
his  head  that  he  could  run. 

No  man  can  tell  what  is  in  him  until  he  tries. 
Be  a  runner  in  the  race  for  righteousness ;  enter 
the  great  Olympian;  lay  aside  every  weight, 
forget  the  things  that  are  behind,  look  forward 
to  what  is  before.  Your  country  needs  you; 
yes — and  your  Christ! 


VIII 
THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

ON  the  ground  of  expediency  alone,  one 
does  well  to  put  himself,  so  far  as  he 
is  able,  into  harmony  with  the  Power 
that  made  the  world  and  rules  it.  It  is  not  for 
fear's  sake,  it  is  not  to  save  one's  soul,  it  is 
not  to  prepare  for  death;  it  is  rather  for  the 
love  of  the  best,  it  is  to  save  men  and  the 
world,  it  is  to  prepare  for  life,  to  make  the 
most  possible  of  one's  self,  that  we  should  place 
our  strength  and  force  in  the  organized 
trenches  with  God. 

It  is  not  long  since  almost  every  lad  in  the 
schools  arid  colleges,  every  man  in  the  street,  if 
asked  what  he  wished  most  to  accomplish  in 
the  world,  would  have  answered,  if  he  was 
quite  frank  and  honest :  "  I  want  to  make  a 
fortune ;  I  want  success ;  I  am  looking  for  com 
mercial,  professional  efficiency."  But  now  the 
tide  has  turned,  has  it  not  ?  Lad  and  man  alike 
would  answer  today,  for  the  most  part,  if  they 
were  frank  and  honest :  "  I  want  to  make  my 
life  count  for  as  much  as  it  will;  I  want  to 
182 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  183 

make  of  myself  the  best  product  of  a  man  I 
can;  I  want  development,  efficiency,  both  for 
my  own  good  and  the  good  of  society.  My 
success  will  come,  not  in  what  I  get  for  my 
self,  but  the  impress  and  the  uplift  I  can 
accomplish."  At  least,  this  latter  position  is 
fast  gaining  ground. 

Now  what  is  the  test  of  personal  and  social 
efficiency?  St.  Paul  gives  us  a  picture  of  the 
fruits  of  these.  He  walks  through  the  or 
chard  of  life  and  he  tells  us  that  the  fruits  of 
the  Spirit,  evidences  of  the  presence  of  God 
in  the  lives  of  men,  are  love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  kindness,  goodness,  faithfulness, 
meekness,  temperance.  These  are  the  manifes 
tations  of  a  life  rooted  and  grounded  in  the 
soil  of  the  Eternal.  By  their  fruits  ye  shall 
know  them.  Look  at  these  fruits : 

Love  is  the  greatest  thing  in  the  world. 
Love  is  not  a  gentle,  optimistic,  diffusive  good 
will  to  all.  There  are  those  who  have  never 
made  an  enemy — never  made  anything.  But 
love  is  active,  aggressive,  positive.  Love  is 
the  good  physician  who  in  emergency  sleeps,  if 
he  sleeps  at  all,  with  one  ear  open  for  the  tele 
phone-call  of  need;  love  is  the  soft- footed,  firm- 
handed,  cool-headed  nurse  who  ministers  at  the 
bed  of  agony;  love  is  the  daring  servant  of  the 
people  and  the  living  God  who  goes  into  office 


184  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

fearing  and  observing  the  face  of  no  man,  into 
the  court  room  or  the  campaign,  into  the  mar 
ket  or  the  manufactory,  into  the  stockyards  or 
the  store,  telling  the  truth,  dealing  honestly, 
and  looking  out  for  others'  benefit  and  not  his 
own  alone.  Are  not  the  finest  lines  in  Tenny 
son  these  two : 

"  Love  took  up  the  harp  of  life  and  smote  on  all  its  chords 

with  might, 

Smote  the  chord  of  Self,  that,   trembling,  passed  in 
music  out  of  sight." 

Joy  and  peace,  two  twin  fruits,  worthy  of  a 
Burbank's  best.  These  come  to  him  who  has 
given  the  spirit  of  God  free-play  within  him. 
"  My  peace  I  leave  with  you,  my  joy  I  give 
unto  you,"  said  Jesus.  Does  this  mean  that 
His  follower  shall  not  suffer,  fail,  be  defeated, 
martyred,  die  ?  Ask  the  twelve.  No,  it  means 
that  no  power  outside  a  man's  self  can  destroy 
his  equanimity,  his  poise,  his  calm  of  soul.  The 
Raven  of  black  hopelessness,  that  sits  upon  the 
pallid  bust  of  Pallas  in  a  man's  soul,  comes 
never  from  without  but  from  within.  If 

"  His  eyes  have  all  the  seeming 
Of  a  demon,  that  is  dreaming; 
And  the  lamplight  o'er  him  streaming 
Casts  his  shadow  on  the  floor; 
And  my  soul  from  out  that  shadow 
That  lies  floating  on  the  floor 
Shall  be  lifted — nevermore" 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  185 

then  be  assured,  it  is  myself  and  not  my  fate, 
my  maker,  my  destiny  that  are  in  fault.  We 
were  made  for  joy  and  peace;  and  if  we  may 
not  always  have  joy,  then  by  the  grace  of  God 
we  may  always  have  peace. 

Long-suffering,  a  mellow,  a  rich  fruit;  rare, 
and  grown  under  the  glass  of  careful  effort  and 
discipline,  very  graceful  and  beautifully  tinted. 

Kindness,  a  most  luscious  and  genial  variety, 
indigenous  in  all  climates,  increases  very 
rapidly,  when  once  it  has  taken  root;  and  is 
far  more  widely  disseminated  than  most  per 
sons  realize. 

Goodness,  by  no  means  an  insipid,  tasteless 
fruit,  but  very  hardy,  enduring  frosts  and 
storms,  heat  and  blight.  Some  think  it  is 
negative;  that  it  never  gets  anywhere  nor  ac 
complishes  much.  People  sometimes  say  of  a 
man,  "  He's  a  good  man — a  very  good  man — 
but — he  never  does  much  of  anything,  nor  is 
of  much  force."  It  is  false.  He  is  not  good 
unless  he  is  good  for  something.  One  who 
really  is  a  very  good  man, — for  such  a  one 
"  peradventure  some  would  even  dare  to  die." 

Faithfulness.  This  does  not  mean  full  of 
faith,  belief,  trust.  It  means  full  of  devotion 
to  duty,  the  full  discharge  of  obligation  to  busi 
ness,  to  position,  to  all  one's  relations.  It  gets 
up  early  and  never  retires  till  the  day's  stint 


186  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

is  all  complete.  It  does  its  task  so  well  that  it 
could  not  do  that  task  better. 

Meekness.  Surely  here  is  a  namby-pamby, 
milk-and-water,  negative  fruit,  if  any.  But 
hardly.  Who  was  the  meekest  man  in  the  Old 
Testament?  Moses.  Look  at  him  smashing 
the  Tables  of  the  Law!  See  him  as  Michel 
angelo  conceived  him.  Rather  rugged,  is  he 
not?  Who  was  the  meekest  man  in  the  New 
Testament?  Jesus.  Look  upon  Him  duelling 
with  Pharisees  and  lawyers  and  defeating  them. 
Look  at  Him  before  Pilate — He  is  the  most 
fearless  of  men.  No,  meekness  is  selflessness ; 
it  thinks  not  of  self;  that  is  why  it  inherits  the 
earth.  The  man  who  wants  the  earth  never 
can  get  it ;  the  man  who  does  not  want  it  often 
does  get  it. 

Temperance.  We  limit  this  word  unfortu 
nately  to  one  only  connotation.  But  there  are 
not  only  those  drunk  with  wine,  but  also  those 
drunk  with  speech,  work,  play,  emotion,  nerves, 
strain,  fear,  anxiety,  ambition,  a  thousand  ex 
cesses.  This  fruit  is  a  specific  for  inebriety; 
but  the  course  of  treatment  is  long,  and  must 
be  patiently  sustained. 

At  the  close  of  this  suggestive  catalogue  of 
St.  Paul's  is  added  the  little  clause,  just  as 
suggestive :  "  Against  such  there  is  no  law." 
Rather  odd,  is  it  not?  Against  such  as  bear 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  187 

these  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  kindness,  goodness,  faithfulness, 
meekness,  temperance, — against  such  there  is 
no  law!  Let  us  look  into  this. 

We  have  all  read  in  the  stories  of  childhood, 
or  in  the  myths  of  ancient  peoples,  the  legend 
of  the  charmed  life.  It  was  supposed  that 
there  were  some  who  bore  about  with  them  an 
amulet,  some  hidden  token,  or  about  whom  had 
been  woven  some  secret  spell  that  was  a  charm 
against  all  evil  and  all  danger.  Achilles,  you 
remember,  could  be  wounded  in  but  one  small 
portion  of  his  frame.  Macbeth  thought  that  he 
bore  a  charmed  existence.  Joan  of  Arc  was 
considered  invincible  and  invulnerable;  no  ar 
row  and  no  catapult  could  harm  her.  Colonel 
George  Washington  in  the  French  and  Indian 
wars  was  supposed,  by  his  enemies,  to  bear  a 
charmed  life;  for  they  repeatedly  took  deadly 
aim  at  him,  and  could  never  pierce  him;  so 
finally  they  ceased  to  fire  upon  him,  saying 
that  he  could  not  be  slain. 

In  these  old  folklore  legends  there  were  sup 
posed  to  be  certain  times  and  seasons  espe 
cially  hallowed  when  men  were  safe  from  bale 
ful  influence  of  spirit,  of  devil,  of  hostile  force 
of  any  kind.  And  even  so  late  as  Shakespeare 
we  find  Marcellus,  in  "  Hamlet,"  on  the  plat 
form  at  Elsinore,  declaring : 


188  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

"  Some  say  that  ever  'gainst  that  season  comes 
Wherein  our   Saviour's  birth  is  celebrated, 
The  bird  of  dawning  singeth  all  night  long; 
And  then,  they  say,  no  spirit  dare  stir  abroad, 
The  nights  are  wholesome,  then  no  planets  strike, 
No  fairy  takes,  nor  witch  hath  power  to  charm, 
So  hallowed  and  so  gracious  is  the  time." 

There  is  truth  in  this  old  conception  of  the 
charmed  life, — God's  own  truth, — and  it  can 
be  put  into  modern  scientific  terms ;  indeed,  St. 
Paul  does  so  put  it  in  this  little  clause  :  Against 
such  as  bear  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  love,  joy, 
peace,  long-suffering,  and  the  rest — against 
such  there  is  no  law. 

We  live  in  an  age  of  law  and  consciousness 
of  law.  In  fact,  law  has  had  its  fascination 
for  great  thinkers  in  all  times,  from  Aristotle 
and  St.  Paul  on  down  to  Huxley  and  Darwin 
and  the  scientists  of  today.  But  in  no  age  has 
the  consciousness  of  law  been  so  universal 
among  the  common  people  as  it  is  today.  We 
know  that  we  live  under  the  influence,  under 
the  guardianship,  of  law,  surrounded  and 
hedged  in  and  dominated  by  law.  We  know 
there  is  no  escape  from  it.  We  know  that  it  is 
either  with  us  or  against  us,  according  to  our 
own  attitude. 

Some  of  us  never  can  forget  with  what  won 
der  and  awe,  yes,  with  what  terror  and  dread, 
we  learned  for  the  first  time  from  our  big 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  189 

brothers,  who,  we  supposed,  knew  everything 
in  the  world,  that  the  atmosphere  was  pressing 
upon  our  small  frames  fifteen  pounds  to  the 
square  inch.  Think  of  it!  Fifteen  pounds 
upon  every  inch  of  one's  little  figure.  Why  was 
it  that  we  were  not  crushed  ?  Why  did  we  not 
collapse?  Why  did  we  not  disappear  into  the 
ground  ?  It  was  a  long  time  before  we  under 
stood  that  the  atmosphere  was  pressing  upon 
all  sides  alike,  inside  and  outside,  above  and 
below,  in  front  and  behind;  and  that  it  was 
that  steadfast  pressure  of  the  air  that  was  for 
us,  and  not  against  us,  that  enabled  us  to  stand 
up  and  walk,  to  run  and  play  and  live.  So  the 
existence  of  law,  as  at  first  we  become  in 
tensely  conscious  of  it,  seems  overpowering, 
awe-inspiring,  and  terror-striking;  but  as  we 
grow  accustomed  to  it,  we  begin  to  appre 
ciate  and  to  understand  that  law  is  with  us, 
and  not  against  us,  so  long  as  we  are  law- 
abiding. 

Now,  what  is  the  origin  of  law  ?  It  is  in  the 
mind  of  God.  Man  never  made  a  law  in  the 
history  of  his  being.  Man  only  discovers,  finds 
the  law.  The  law  is  forever  and  eternally  in 
the  mind  and  heart  of  God.  Law  is  God,  God 
is  law.  We  like  to  say  that  God  is  love.  Yes, 
God  is  the  law  of  love,  and  no  less  law  for 
being  love.  And  never  for  a  moment  do  w$ 


190  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

escape  from  the  presence  and  the  operation  of 
His  law.  It  is  with  us  all  the  time. 

Man  never  made,  for  example,  a  natural 
law ;  he  only  discovers  it.  In  his  laboratory  or 
in  his  play  with  the  forces  of  nature,  he  dis 
covers  that  the  same  cause  operating  always 
in  the  same  way  produces  the  same  effect ;  and 
when  he  observes  it  a  hundred  times,  or  a  thou 
sand  times,  and  there  has  been  no  variation 
from  the  same  sequence  of  events,  he  writes  it 
down  in  a  text-book  or  in  his  laboratory  report 
and  publishes  it  to  the  world  as  a  law.  He  has 
not  made  any  law.  He  has  simply  found  out 
a  law. 

The  same  thing  is  true  with  reference  to 
statutory  law.  Men  have  observed  in  the 
course  of  centuries  and  millenniums  that  under 
certain  circumstances,  given  certain  conditions, 
men  will  always  act  toward  each  other  in  cer 
tain  ways,  if  they  act  right.  Consequently 
men  have  come  to  write  down  in  their  statute 
books  that  men  under  certain  circumstances, 
given  certain  conditions,  shall  always  act  so 
toward  each  other;  and  they  call  it  a  law. 
Man  has  not  made  the  law.  He  has  simply 
discovered  the  law  of  being,  of  humanity,  the 
law  of  the  moral  life.  It  was  Kant,  the 
philosopher,  who  once  declared :  "  Two  things 
fill  me  with  awe ;  the  starry  heavens  above,  and 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  191 

within,  the  moral  law."  His  discovery  and 
contemplation  of  these  two  realms  of  law,  out 
side  and  inside  of  him,  impressed  his  soul  with 
wonder  and  awe. 

A  man,  then,  who  is  law-abiding,  whether 
toward  nature  or  toward  his  fellow-man,  need 
have  no  terror  of  the  law;  he  need  not  be 
afraid  of  it. 

One  time  in  a  summer  cottage  the  great 
Thomas  Edison  was  spending  his  vacation  by 
a  certain  lake.  Every  morning  from  the 
veranda  next  door  one  could  look  out  upon  his 
upper  porch  and  see  him  sitting  there  behind 
the  screen  of  vines,  hidden  from  the  passersby 
going  along  the  boardwalk  to  and  from  the 
water,  but  easily  visible  to  those  upon  either 
side;  sitting  with  his  great  domed  head  upon 
his  hands,  in  meditation,  in  thought,  or  in 
rest.  Mentally  take  off  your  hat  to  him  every 
day!  Better  bare  your  head  before  him  than 
before  the  Tsar  of  All  the  Russias,  Kaiser 
Wilhelm  of  Germany,  or  even  King  Albert  of 
little  Belgium,  because  he  is  a  greater  potentate, 
a  greater  benefactor. 

They  say  Thomas  Edison  can  stand  in  his 
laboratory,  his  great  laboratory, — his  little 
laboratory, — and  there,  carefully  insulated,  can 
turn  loose  all  round  him  the  force  of  the  elec 
tric  storm.  There  is  the  jagged  lightning; 


192  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

there  is  the  roll  of  thunder;  and  he,  at  the 
center,  plays  with  it  in  a  sense  which  Ben 
Franklin  never  dreamed  of,  plays  with  the 
storm,  safe  and  unharmed,  invulnerable,  bear 
ing  the  charmed  life — because  he  knows  the 
law,  and  puts  himself  at  the  point  of  safety 
within  the  law. 

Now,  the  same  thing  is  true  with  regard  to 
the  moral  law.  There  are  eminent  jurists,  no 
doubt,  without  a  knowledge  of  all  the  laws 
that  are  on  the  statute  hooks  of  their  native 
States.  But  they  are  not  afraid  of  the  law. 
Those  men,  knowing  that  ignorance  of  the  law 
excuses  no  man,  either  in  nature  or  society, 
sit  in  their  office  chairs  or  walk  the  streets 
serene  and  comfortable  and  unafraid.  Why? 
They  are  ignorant  of  part  of  the  law  but  not 
afraid,  because  they  know  that  their  lives  are 
in  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  law,  and  the 
law  is  never  a  terror  to  good  works.  But  out 
yonder  along  the  railroad  tracks,  there  some 
where  in  the  thickets  and  forests,  yonder  in 
the  rookeries  and  slums  of  the  great  cities,  are 
men,  cringing  and  afraid,  starting  at  their 
shadows,  uneasy  in  their  sleep  and  dreams,  in 
terror  constantly  because  they  know  they  have 
outraged  the  law.  So  a  man  may  carry  about 
with  him  some  secret  purpose,  intent,  ambition, 
cherish  some  hidden  sin  within  his  moral  fibre, 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  193 

which,  like  a  foreign  substance  in  the  flesh,  like 
an  organism  working  in  the  body,  creates  civil 
war.  Whenever  a  hostile  outside  substance 
cornes  into  this  body  of  ours,  immediately  the 
corpuscles  of  the  blood  are  sent,  like  an  army, 
to  that  point;  and  there  a  siege  begins.  The 
fight  is  internecine,  it  is  inexorable,  it  is  un 
ending,  until  either  the  foreign  substance  is 
expelled  or  the  patient  dies.  That  is  precisely 
the  attitude  in  which  the  offender  against  his 
own  soul  stands.  The  war  is  on;  the  foreign 
substance  is  there ;  and  death  or  freedom  must 
ensue.  Either  the  will  must  be  bowed  until 
it  is  in  harmony  with  the  law,  or  else  the 
inevitable  consequences  of  the  violation  of  the 
law  must  fall. 

There  are  two  or  three  laws  which  apply  to 
our  inner  life, — for  it  is  up  to  that  plane  that 
we  must  lead  our  thought, — which  we  may 
well  consider. 

There  is  a  law,  for  example,  which  St.  Paul 
calls  the  law  of  our  members.  Says  he :  "I 
find  a  law  within  me,  in  my  body,  fighting 
against  the  law  of  my  mind,  so  that  what  I 
would  do  that  I  cannot,  and  what  I  would  not 
that  I  do." 

We  saw  this  beautifully  illustrated  some 
years  since  at  the  World's  Fair  in  Chicago. 
No  doubt  most  of  us  saw  the  same  group  of 


194  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

statuary;  for  either  in  plaster,  or  in  photo 
graphic  reproduction,  it  was  scattered  all  over 
the  country.  Before  that  group  crowds  all  the 
while  were  standing  in  the  course  of  that  ex 
position.  There  were  two  beautiful  nude 
figures  wrestling  with  each  other.  Their  mus 
cles  stood  out  like  bands  of  steel,  the  nerves 
and  sinews  like  whipcords  on  their  breasts. 
Great  beads  of  perspiration  coursed  down  their 
faces.  One  was  above  and  one  was  beneath. 
The  one  above  seemed  to  be  pressing  the  one 
beneath  down  into  the  ground.  Underneath 
was  written :  "  I  feel  two  natures  struggling 
within  me."  The  appeal  of  that  group  is  uni 
versal,  because  we  all  feel  the  two  natures 
struggling  within  us.  Identical  in  outward  ap 
pearance,  they  both  are  we ;  and  which  of  them 
is  gaining  the  victory,  our  spirit  or  our  flesh, 
is  hidden  from  all  but  God  to  know. 

Yet  this  universal  conflict,  this  unending 
battle  which  is  going  on  within  each  of  us,  can 
have  no  terror  for  the  man  whose  life  is  hidden 
with  Christ  in  God.  Whoso  brings  forth  the 
fruits  of  the  spirit, — love,  joy,  peace,  long- 
suffering,  and  the  rest, — against  such  there  is 
no  law.  The  laws  of  this  frame  with  all  that 
they  would  lead  us  to, — with  the  frailties  of  it, 
with  its  weaknesses,  with  its  constantly  degen 
erating  character  after  we  have  reached  the 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  195 

meridian  of  life,  with  all  the  care  that  we  ex 
pend  upon  it,  and  the  anxiety  that  it  is  to  us, 
all  the  time  growing  grayer,  and  shrivelling  and 
withering  toward  the  ground, — can  have  no 
terror  for  the  man  whose  soul  is  stayed  on  God. 
For,  after  all,  it  is  not  the  things  of  the  flesh, 
it  is  not  the  material  elements  by  which  we  are 
surrounded,  it  is  the  inward  man  that  supplies 
the  real  life  of  men.  If  his  thoughts  be  given 
to  his  upper  nature,  if  he  cultivates  within  him 
whatever  is  true  and  beautiful  and  lovely  and 
of  good  report,  man  need  never  fear  for  the 
decay  nor  the  failure  nor  the  fall  of  the  frame. 

And  once  again,  there  is  another  and  more 
spiritual  law, — for  when  the  Christian  passes 
beyond  the  childhood  of  his  days  in  Christ,  he 
wrestles  little  with  his  members.  There  is  the 
law  of  the  mind,  which  says,  he  who  thinks 
shall  doubt.  Early  in  his  religious  experience, 
the  young  Christian  becomes  conscious  of  that 
law.  The  more  he  learns  the  more  he  realizes 
that  his  old  and  trusted  conceptions  are  open 
to  doubt  and  to  question.  If  this  is  an  age  of 
law,  it  is  also  an  age  of  doubt.  Says  Henry 
van  Dyke : 

"  Its  coat  of  arms  is  an  interrogation  point, 
rampant,  above  three  bishops  dormant,  and  its 
motto  is  Query." 

If  so,  it  is  a  hopeful  sign  of  the  times,  for  the. 


196  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

man  who  does  not  doubt,  does  not  think.  The 
man  who  has  his  mind  made  up  on  all  terres 
trial  and  celestial  things  is  the  man  who  has  no 
mind  that  is  worth  making  up  at  all.  He  is  fos 
silized  and  crystallized.  The  mind  that  rests 
content  upon  tradition  handed  down  from 
father  and  from  grandfather,  from  teacher 
and  from  professor,  is  degenerating  toward 
decay;  while  every  man  who  for  himself  ex 
plores  the  foundations  of  his  intellectual 
beliefs,  must  begin  to  question  and  to  doubt. 

The  present  writer  one  day  drove  up  to  a 
beautiful  old  Kentucky  home,  with  the  owner 
of  it,  through  a  great  bluegrass  pasture.  Off 
to  the  right  was  an  Indian  mound,  nobody 
knows  how  old.  At  the  dinner-table  that  day 
the  following  conversation  occurred: 

"Have  you  ever  dug  into  that  mound?" 
This  from  the  guest. 

"  No."    This,  laconically,  from  the  host. 

"  It  would  be  very  interesting  to  know  what 
is  inside  of  it.  You  might  find  something  very 
rare,  very  valuable,  a  contribution  to  our  his 
torical  knowledge.  If  you  did  not  care  for  the 
findings,  doubtless  the  University  museum 
would  be  very  glad  of  them." 

No  word  from  the  host.  After  a  pause,  the 
guest  opened  fire  again: 

"  Don't  you  intend  ever  to  open  it  ?  " 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  197 

"  No." 

"  May  I  ask  why  not  ?  " 

"  Well,  my  father  didn't  open  it.  His  father 
didn't  open  it.  My  great-grandfather  didn't 
open  it.  And  I  ain't  goin'  to  open  it." 

That  is  Kentucky  for  you !  And  perhaps  it 
is  also  Puritan  Massachusetts,  Knickerbocker 
New  York,  Cavalier  Virginia,  and  many  an 
other  locality  that  is  neither  Puritan,  nor 
Knickerbocker,  nor  Cavalier. 

Prof.  William  James  has  said  that  the  trou 
ble  with  the  American  people  is  that  they  do 
not  think ;  and  that  what  they  need  is  not  more 
faith,  more  assurance,  more  certainty,  but  more 
doubt,  more  inquiry,  more  thought.  He  quotes 
the  little  boy's  definition,  "  Faith  is  when  you 
believe  something  that  you  know  ain't  so."  It 
is  a  far  greater  crime  against  the  God-given 
mind  of  man  to  try  to  believe  something  that 
you  are  conscious  is  not  true,  than  it  is  openly 
to  say,  "  I  do  not  believe  it,  I  won't  believe  it." 
"  There  lives  more  faith  in  honest  doubt,  be 
lieve  me,  than  in  half  the  creeds,"  said  Tenny 
son.  And  then  he  sanely  adds: 

"  Cleave  ever  to  the  sunnier  side  of  doubt, 
And  cling  to  Faith  beyond  the  forms  of  Faith ! " 

So  it  is  a  hopeful  sign  when  a  young  person, 
or  an  old  person  for  that  matter,  begins  to  say, 


198  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

"  I  doubt  this,"  "  I  doubt  that,"  "  I  want  to 
investigate  that." 

This  age  is  an  age  which  does  not  stop  short 
at  the  throne  of  God  itself;  but  asking  ques 
tions  of  His  world,  of  His  sunshine,  of  His 
mountains,  of  His  stars,  and  of  His  living 
creatures,  comes  to  the  foot  of  the  great  white 
throne  itself,  and  says  to  God :  "  What  art 
Thou?"  "Who  art  Thou?"  "What  am  I?" 
and  "  Why  hast  Thou  made  me?  " 

There  was  one  of  the  disciples  who  is 
proverbially  called  the  doubter.  After  Jesus' 
resurrection  he  it  was  who  would  not  believe, 
until  he  had  put  his  finger  into  the  print  of 
the  nails  and  thrust  his  hand  into  the  wound 
of  the  spear  in  His  side.  And  Jesus  said  to 
him,  "  Come,  Thomas,  reach  forth  thy  finger 
and  thy  hand,  and  be  not  faithless,  but  believ 
ing."  He  spoke  with  infinite  tenderness  and 
appreciation  to  Thomas,  the  skeptic.  On  a 
certain  occasion,  farther  back  in  His  life,  Jesus 
had  turned  His  face  to  go  up  to  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  and  His  disciples  said  to  Him: 
"  Master,  if  you  go  up  to  the  city  at  this  time 
you  will  pay  for  it  with  your  life.  You  know 
that  the  Pharisees  are  lying  in  wait  for  you  to 
take  you."  But  He  set  His  face  like  flint  to 
go  to  the  city  of  Jerusalem.  Then  said 
Thomas,  "  Come,  let  us  also  go  with  Him, 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  199 

that  we  may  die  with  Him."  Commend  me  to 
that  kind  of  skeptic,  the  man  who  does  not 
understand  his  Lord,  the  man  to  whom  Jesus 
Christ  is  a  mystery  that  he  never  will  solve, 
and  knows  he  never  will  solve ;  yet  who  so  loves 
Jesus  Christ,  that  he  says,  "  Come,  let  me  go 
with  him,  that  I  may  die  with  him."  Against 
such  there  is  no  law;  against  a  man  who  puts 
his  hand  into  the  hand  of  Christ  and  gives  his 
will  to  the  will  of  Christ,  against  him  there  is 
no  law  of  doubt  that  can  prevail;  His  inquiry 
will  but  lead  him  to  the  light,  where  he  can  cry 
in  the  clearness  and  the  splendor  of  his  vision, 
"  My  Lord  and  my  God ! "  He  bears  the 
charmed  life. 

Then  once  more,  there  is  the  old,  old  law  of 
sorrow,  as  old  as  Job  and  older.  Man  that  is 
born  of  woman  is  of  few  days  and  full  of 
trouble.  Man  is  born  to  evil  as  the  sparks  to 
fly  upward.  Is  there  evil  in  the  city  and  the 
Lord  hath  not  done  it?  Is  there  any  life 
lived  under  the  blue  that  has  not  had  its  days 
of  grief  and  distress  and  pain?  Sorrow  is  the 
universal  heritage  of  the  race.  It  is  a  law, 
just  as  inexorable  as  the  laws  of  nature  by 
which  we  are  hedged  in  and  with  which  we  are 
surrounded.  None  of  us  escapes  from  it. 

Sir  Edwin  Arnold,  in  his  "  Light  of  Asia," 
tells  how  Buddha  sleeps  in  his  beautiful  palace 


200  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

while  silver-stringed  lyres  are  placed  in  the 
windows;  so  that  the  soft  zephyrs  of  the  night 
can  blow  over  them  and  lull  to  sleep  the  prince 
and  his  consort  and  household.  And  this  is 
the  message  which  comes  over  the  silver 
strings  to  the  ears  of  the  restless,  uneasy 
Buddha : 

"We  are  the  voices  of  the  wandering  wind, 
Which  moan  for  rest,  and  rest  can  never  find; 
Lo!  as  the  wind  is,  so  is  mortal  life: 
A  moan,  a  sigh,  a  sob,  a  ^torm,  a  strife." 

Into  each  life  some  rain  must  fall, — yes,  and 
some  hail  and  some  thunderbolts.  Lives  are 
riven  and  torn  all  round  us ;  and  nobody  knows 
when  the  lightning  may  strike  him  or  his. 
What  shall  we  think  and  do  in  the  face  of  this 
inexorable  law  ?  Make  answer  that  against  the 
life  that  is  hidden  with  Christ  in  God,  the  life 
that  brings  forth  the  fruits  of  the  Spirit,  love, 
joy,  peace,  long-suffering,  kindness,  goodness, 
faithfulness,  meekness,  temperance,  there  is  no 
law  of  sorrow  that  can  prevail.  We  know  it  is 
true.  Over  and  over  again  have  we  seen  lives 
that  have  been  given  into  His  keeping  bowed 
and  twisted  and  torn,  as  by  the  electric  storm, 
cleft  as  by  the  lightning,  and  still  firm  and 
strong  as  if  rooted  into  the  rock. 

There  was  a  widow  in  my  church  in  a  cer- 


THE  CHARMED  LIFE  201 

tain  city,  nearly  twenty  years  ago,  who  had 
three  sons,  and  she  toiled  hard  to  send  two  of 
these  boys  to  college,  as  they  wished  to  prepare 
for  the  Christian  ministry.  They  were  at  home 
for  the  summertime,  and  they  went  out  to 
bathe  in  the  little  stream  that  flows  upon  three 
sides  of  that  inland  town.  The  youngest  boy, 
unable  to  swim,  suddenly  got  beyond  his  depth, 
and  cried  out  for  help.  The  eldest  brother 
plunged  in  to  aid  him.  Unable  to  swim,  he  also 
began  to  cry  for  help.  Then  the  second  brother 
leaped  to  the  aid  of  the  others.  All  three  were 
struggling  in  the  water.  Somehow,  the  little 
one  managed  to  scramble  out;  but  the  other 
two,  the  college  boys,  were  drowned.  Her 
pastor  sat  with  that  widow  through  the  long 
watches  of  that  night  as  she  rocked  back  and 
forth  in  a  white  and  tearless  agony.  He  fol 
lowed  that  double  procession  to  the  cemetery. 
And  again,  as  the  weeks  and  months  went  by, 
he  watched  the  widow's  face,  as  in  her  accus 
tomed  place  she  sat  in  the  sanctuary.  Her  hair 
visibly  whitened;  her  face  was  deeper  and 
deeper  lined  with  the  furrows  of  her  irrepa 
rable  loss;  and  yet  it  seemed  to  him  as  if  that 
face  shone  like  the  face  of  an  angel.  She  is 
living  there  yet,  and  the  little  fellow  is  now 
preaching  the  gospel  of  the  Son  of  God. 
That  is  but  one  out  of  many  instances  that 


202  THE  CHARMED  LIFE 

come  under  a  pastor's  observation  in  which 
men  and  women  are  shaken  by  what  seems  un 
bearable  grief;  and  yet  stand  firm.  A  life  that 
is  given  in  keeping  to  God,  a  life  the  will  of 
which  flows  in  harmony  with  the  will  of  God — 
you  cannot  obliterate,  you  cannot  destroy  that 
life,  for  God  made  it,  and  it  is  eternal.  Against 
such  there  is  no  law  in  God's  mind,  nor  out 
of  God's  mind,  which  is  the  seat  of  all  law, 
that  can  prevail.  We  cannot  know  all  the  law. 
We  know  very  little  about  the  law  of  God  in 
nature  or  in  man.  We  are  just  beginning  to 
think  His  thoughts  over  after  Him.  We  know 
very  little  of  the  statutory  law  upon  the  books 
of  the  nations  and  in  the  usages  of  men.  We 
know  very  little  of  the  moral  law  within  us. 
We  are  just  learning  the  A  B  C's  of  the  in 
variable,  unchangeable  law  that  the  Hebrews 
wrote  in  stone.  We  know  very  little  about  the 
laws  of  our  members,  the  laws  of  our  mind, 
and  the  laws  of  the  creation.  But  we  do  know 
this,  that  as  sure  as  God  lives  He  has  made  no 
law  that  is  against  us,  if  our  wills  but  flow  in 
harmony  with  His  own.  Ignorance  of  the  law 
may  excuse  none,  but  if  the  man's  will  be 
right,  the  law  is  with  him,  and  not  against 
him — he  bears  the  Charmed  Life. 


IX 

HOW  ARE  THE  SCRIPTURES  IN 
SPIRED? 

THIS  rapid  attempt  at  a  resume  of  the 
popular   thought   of   our   time   would 
not  be  halfway  complete  without  some 
attention  paid  to  the  place  of  the  Bible  in  mod 
ern  thought.    The  average  man  does  not  read 
the  book  as  much  as  he  formerly  did ;  but  never 
theless  he  is  thinking  about  it  some,  is  jealous 
for  it. 

We  may  well  long  for  the  old  days  when  our 
fathers  under  the  shade  of  the  trees,  by  the 
furrows  at  noon,  took  out  their  little  dog 
eared  Testaments,  and  snatched  a  few  hasty 
passages,  or  by  the  open  fire  at  night  reached 
down  the  great  old  family  Bible  and  read  to 
the  household,  expounded,  and  pondered  it. 
We  have  not  their  incentive — controversy.  We 
should  hardly  desire  the  restoration  of  the  lat 
ter,  but  we  should  greatly  profit  by  the  return 
of  the  Book.  The  first-best  place  for  the  Bible 
is  in  the  soul,  the  next  in  the  mind,  the  next  in 
the  pocket. 

203 


204         SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

But  this  age,  so  accustomed  to  ask  questions, 
has  been  interrogative  about  the  Bible;  it  has 
almost  if  not  quite  reached  its  conclusion ;  per 
haps  it  may  be  worth  while  to  outline  what  it 
has  been  thinking  and  still  is  thinking  con 
cerning  this  important  issue. 

Some  twenty-odd  years  ago  in  the  Boston 
theater  one  might  have  heard  Col.  Robert  Inger- 
soll,  as  he  stepped  to  the  front  of  the  platform, 
with  that  peculiar  nervous  gesture  of  his,  say, 
"  Since  nobody  else  will  tell  the  truth  about 
the  Bible,  I'm  going  to  tell  it !  "  when,  at  that 
very  moment,  scarce  three  miles  away,  men 
were  living  in  an  institution,  giving  days  and 
nights — years — their  lives — to  finding  out  the 
truth  about  the  Bible,  and  telling  and  publish 
ing  it.  He  was  surrounded  with  pulpits  where 
ministers,  unafraid,  were  speaking  the  truth 
as  they  saw  it,  concerning  the  Bible,  and  all 
religious  subjects.  Colonel  Ingersoll  was 
merely  taking  the  results  of  the  then  new 
critical  study,  and  taking  them  very  super 
ficially,  from  the  institutions  of  learning,  and 
distorting  and  twisting  them  to  suit  the  pur 
poses  which  he  had  in  hand.  He  was  no 
scholar;  he  was  simply  an  accomplished 
speaker. 

There  is  no  earthly  reason  why  any  one 
should  not  tell  the  truth  about  the  Bible,  as 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED         205 

far  as  he  sees  it  and  knows  it,  with  just  as 
much  freedom  as  Colonel  Ingersoll  or  any  ma 
terialist  or  rationalist  whomsoever.  We  have 
the  utmost  liberty  to  speak  the  truth  without 
reservation  or  equivocation,  confident  in  the 
reception  of  the  truth,  as  it  is  given  us  to  see 
the  truth,  in  the  spirit  in  which  it  is  spoken. 
The  truth  is  mighty,  and  will  prevail;  and  no 
body  ever  needs  to  fear  the  truth.  Sometimes 
it  is  shadowed  and  shaded  and  obscured,  but 
it  comes  to  the  light,  ultimately;  and  truth, 
and  truth  alone,  can  triumph.  Falsehood  al 
ways  dies. 

The  word  "  inspiration  "  is  taken  from  two 
Latin  words  which  mean  "  to  breathe  into  " ; 
and  when  we  speak  of  an  inspired  document, 
we  mean  that  the  breath  of  divinity  has  been 
breathed  into  it ;  just  as  the  breath  of  God  was 
breathed  into  the  clay,  and  it  became  a  liv 
ing  soul.  Any  way  you  care  to  put  it — by 
evolution  or  by  whatever  process  man  came 
into  being — the  divine  breath  was  breathed 
into  him  and  he  became  a  living  soul. 
Now,  when  the  truth  is  breathed  into  a  book, 
it  becomes  "  inspired."  It  is  inspired  by 
the  inbreathing  of  the  Spirit  of  God.  So 
much  for  the  etymology  and  definition  of  the 
word. 

Now,  in  just  what  fashion  are  these  books 


206          SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

of  the  Scripture,  so-called,  breathed  into,  in 
spired  with  the  breath  of  God? 

There  have  been  three  answers  made  to  that 
question.  There  is,  first,  the  answer  that  these 
books  were  dictated  by  God;  that  they  are  the 
result  of  dictation  to  an  amanuensis,  or  to 
amanuenses.  There  is  the  second  answer,  that 
these  books  are  just  like  any  other  books,  in 
spired  as  any  other  books  are  inspired,  and  only 
so  inspired.  There  is  the  third  answer,  that 
these  books  are  peculiarly  inspired,  differently 
from  any  other  books;  more  intensely;  more 
profoundly;  inspired  in  a  degree  in  which  no 
other  books  in  the  world  have  ever  been  in 
spired.  Those  are  the  three  possible  positions 
that  may  be  assumed  with  regard  to  the  in 
spiration  of  Sacred  Scripture. 

First  of  all,  the  theory  of  dictation.  It  is, 
that  God  used  men,  as  channels  through  whom 
should  flow  His  words;  that  these  amanuenses 
wrote  down  what  God  put  into  their  hearts  to 
write ;  in  other  words,  that  God  made  a  revela 
tion  by  means  of  the  pens  of  certain  men,  or 
by  means  of  the  tongues  of  certain  men,  and 
that  revelation  has  been  handed  down  to  us 
through  the  centuries,  in  this  written  form. 
The  Book  of  Mormon  is  supposed  so  to  have 
been  handed  down.  It  was  found,  we  are  told, 
by  Joseph  Smith,  the  prophet,  hidden  away  in 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED         207 

the  woods,  buried  in  the  earth,  and  printed 
upon  gold  leaves.  It  was  dictated,  signed, 
sealed  and  delivered,  once  and  for  all,  in  the 
form  in  which  he  found  it.  Such  was  his 
conception  of  the  revelation  of  God,  contained 
in  his  sacred  book. 

How  does  this  idea  of  the  revelation  of 
our  Scriptures  bear  the  tests?  How  did  this 
theory  come  to  arise?  Possibly  we  shall  get 
some  answer,  through  tracing  its  origin  in  his 
tory.  The  theory  is  only  about  four  centuries 
old.  It  originated  in  the  sixteenth  century,  in 
the  time  of  the  Reformation.  The  protestants 
against  the  Catholic  Church  felt  that  they  must 
have  some  infallible  authority  which  they  could 
erect  over  against  the  infallible  authority  of 
the  Church  and  the  pope ;  consequently,  gradu 
ally,  in  the  development  of  Protestantism,  the 
Bible  was  taken  as  the  only  possible  infallible 
authority  that  could  be  found  to  oppose  the 
pope  and  the  Church.  Martin  Luther,  him 
self,  did  not  hold  to  the  theory  of  the  inerrancy 
of  Scripture.  He  speaks,  for  instance,  of  the 
Epistle  of  St.  James  as  "  an  epistle  of  straw — 
a  rope  of  sand,"  and  he  speaks  of  the  Galatian 
letter,  on  the  other  hand,  as  his  "  wife,"  his 
Katherine  von  Bora,  because  he  kept  it  by  him 
night  and  day.  But  the  reformers,  gradually, 


208         SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

since  the  time  of  Luther,  have  erected  the 
Bible  to  its  seat  of  infallible  authority. 

Now,  God  may  have  given  us  the  Bible  in 
that  way ;  but  it  does  not  seem  entirely  reason 
able  to  the  modern  mind  that  He  did.  The  fact 
is,  it  is  doubtful  if  a  reader  of  this  page  believes 
in  the  dictation-theory  of  the  origin  of  Sacred 
Scripture.  The  individual  would  say :  "  No, 
I  do  not  believe  it,  just  in  that  way.  I  think 
the  Book  is  infallible,  but  not  dictated." 
Where  can  you  draw  the  line  of  distinction, 
then,  between  the  two?  If  it  is  infallible,  every 
word  of  it,  every  dotting  of  every  "  i,"  and 
every  crossing  of  every  "  t,"  must  be  infallible. 
It,  then,  must  be  dictated,  authorized  word  by 
word,  letter  by  letter,  from  God ;  otherwise  the 
theory  of  infallibility  must  crumble  to  the 
ground.  That  is  the  logic  of  the  situation. 
And  then  even  if  men  do  not  agree  that  they 
believe  in  the  theory  of  dictation,  they  never 
theless  act  as  if  they  believed  so,  when  they 
say :  "  This  and  this  is  true,  because  I  find  it  in 
the  Bible.  So  and  so  is  the  case,  because  the 
Bible  says  so.  I  must  have  a  thus-saith-the- 
Lord,  or  I  will  not  do  this  or  that.  I  must 
have  a  prescription  in  the  Book,  itself,  or  I 
will  not  have  an  organ  in  the  church.  I  must 
find  missionary  societies  spoken  of  in  actual 
words  in  the  New  Testament,  or  there  shall  be 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED         209 

no  missionary  organization  in  the  church.  The 
Bible  says  nothing  about  violins,  therefore  we 
cannot  have  a  violin  obligato  played  in  our 
choir."  You  see  where  the  logic  of  that  atti 
tude  brings  us.  We  must  have  exact  specifica 
tions  for  everything,  if  we  are  going  to  hold 
to  the  theory  of  infallibility. 

But  God  does  not  work  in  that  way,  does 
He?  If  He  had  wanted  to,  no  doubt,  He 
could  have  put  His  finger  down  upon  the  plains 
of  Colorado,  and  there,  instead  of  the  rough 
and  jagged  Rocky  Mountains,  He  could  have 
made  beautiful,  symmetrical  pyramids,  with 
steps  adapted  to  the  feet  of  man,  or  with 
spiral  roadways,  adapted  to  the  railroads  and 
the  automobiles  of  man.  He  could  have  made 
those  pyramids,  just  as  polished  and  as  regular 
as  the  pyramids  of  Cheops  and  Kephren.  He 
could  have  burrowed  through  them,  if  He  cared 
to,  channels  through  which  the  traffic  of  man 
could  have  passed  so  much  more  easily  than  it 
can  pass  over  those  jagged,  inaccessible  sum 
mits.  If  God  had  cared  to,  He  could  have 
made  the  water  flow  uphill,  so  that  it  could 
be  delivered  in  the  third  stories  of  our  houses, 
without  difficulty  and  without  effort  upon  our 
part.  But  He  does  not  work  against  His  law 
of  gravitation.  If  God  cared  to,  He  could  have 
painted  the  sky,  day  and  night,  with  all  the 


210         SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

roseate  colors  with  which  He  painted  it  at  six 
o'clock  yesterday  afternoon,  when  He  hung  the 
evening  star  in  the  west.  If  He  had  cared 
to,  what  could  He  not  have  done?  But,  in 
stead  of  that,  He  has  given  us  a  tough  world,  a 
hard  world,  a  rugged  and  a  rocky  world,  a 
world  dominated  by  law,  with  the  obstinacy 
of  Nature,  and  with  the  apparently  futile  ef 
forts  of  mankind  dashing  themselves  to  pieces 
against  the  elements  of  His  law.  He  has 
chosen  that  method  by  which  to  refine  and  to 
polish  and  to  toughen  and  to  develop  man ;  and, 
in  somewhat  the  same  fashion,  perhaps  He  has 
put  against  the  mind  of  man  problems  to 
solve,  difficulties  to  unravel,  perplexities  to  en 
dure,  and  enemies  to  conquer.  Truth  comes 
only  by  effort.  Truth  handed  down  to  us, 
signed,  sealed  and  delivered,  is  milk  to  the 
babe — not  food  to  the  man.  The  childhood  of 
the  race  and  the  childhood  of  the  human  intel 
lect  may  often  demand  infallible  guides;  but 
not  so  the  full-grown  race  of  men. 

The  theory  of  the  infallibility  of  the  Sacred 
Scriptures,  the  theory  of  dictation,  of  the  re 
formers,  has  been  valuable  in  the  world.  It 
has  done  its  work.  It  has  helped  to  preserve 
many  of  the  institutions  and  many  of  the 
ideals  contained  within  the  Book.  In  the 
same  fashion,  the  infallibility  of  the  Church 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED         211 

and  of  the  pope  has  served  a  valuable  purpose 
in  the  world,  for  it  held  together,  during  the 
Dark  Ages,  the  nucleus  of  Christianity  and  the 
Kingdom  of  God; -it  preserved  these  selfsame 
Scriptures;  continued,  in  the  mass,  the  memo 
rial  feast  of  the  Last  Supper  of  Our  Lord. 
Both  these  infallibilities  have  had  their  day, — 

"  Have  had  their  day,  and  ceased  to  be, 
They  are  but  broken  lights  of  Thee, 
And  Thou,  oh  Lord,  art  more  than  they." 

It  is  just  as  evident,  upon  careful  scrutiny  of 
the  facts  concerning  these  Scriptures,  that  God 
did  not  follow  the  pyramidal  form  of  dicta 
tion,  as  it  is  upon  careful  scrutiny  of  Nature 
that  God  did  not  give  the  world  to  us  just 
simply  to  ease  our  paths. 

What  are  some  of  these  facts?  First,  then, 
with  regard  to  the  canon.  The  Scriptures  did 
not  exist  in  the  form  and  number  in  which  we 
have  them  now,  until  the  fourth  century  after 
Christ.  The  number  of  books  to  be  gathered 
into  the  Old  Testament  was  not  determined 
until  the  end  of  the  first  Christian  century;  and 
the  number  of  books  to  be  gathered  into  the 
New  was  not  determined  until  our  Lord  had 
passed  from  the  earth  nearly  four  hundred 
years. 

In  every  synagogue-chest  was  a  number  of 


212          SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

rolls,  each  containing  one  book  of  the  Old 
Testament.  Now  one  was  used,  now  another. 
These  were  of  varying  value,  and  uncertain 
status;  and  custom  gradually  set  its  seal  upon 
the  chosen  bool^s.  Just  why  a  love-poem  like 
the  Song  of  Solomon  was  included,  and  a 
heroic  history  like  that  of  the  Maccabees  was 
left  out,  is  difficult  to  determine. 

In  like  manner,  in  every  early  Christian 
church,  there  was  a  number  of  rolls,  each  a 
gospel,  or  an  epistle,  or  an  apocalypse.  One 
church  possessed  one  or  more  gospels,  another 
a  different  one  or  different  ones;  one  had  cer 
tain  of  Paul's  epistles,  another  had  others ;  one 
had  the  letter  of  St.  James,  another  that  of 
St.  Barnabas;  one  had  the  revelation  of  St. 
John,  another  that  of  Enoch.  These  were  not 
all  collected,  sifted,  and  compounded  into  the 
present  collection  until  late  in  the  fourth  cen 
tury  after  Christ.  Undoubtedly  it  is  true  that, 
in  the  case  of  the  Christian  Scriptures,  the 
selection  was  wisely  made ;  though  it  is  a  great 
pity  that  at  least  one  of  Paul's  letters  was  al 
lowed  to  perish. 

Again,  the  text  of  the  books  is  still  open  to 
considerable  question;  and  doubtless  it  will 
never  be  finally  and  definitely  determined.  The 
inspired,  infallible  dictated  book — what  is  it? 
The  King  James  Version?  Is  it  the  Revised 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED         213 

Version?  Is  it  the  Westcott  and  Hort  Greek 
Testament?  Or  is  it  the  Tischendorf  Greek 
Testament?  Is  it  Wycliffe's  Bible?  Tindal's 
Bible?  Luther's  Bible?  Whose  Bible  is  it 
that  is  to  be  the  final,  absolute,  infallible, 
dictated  authority?  There  are  no  manuscripts 
of  the  New  Testament  older  than  the  fourth 
century  after  Christ,  and  which  one  of  the 
manuscripts — for  they  differ  in  their  readings 
— is  to  be  the  final  and  infallible,  dictated 
manuscript,  handed  down  from  God?  Is  it  to 
be  the  Codex  Sinaiticus,  the  one  that  Tischen 
dorf  found  in  the  monastery  of  Sinai?  Or,  is 
it  to  be  the  Alexandrian  manuscript?  Or,  is 
it  to  be  the  Vatican  manuscript,  in  the  Vatican 
library?  Is  it  to  be  one  of  those  three  great 
capital  manuscripts  ?  Or,  is  it  to  be  one  of  the 
one  hundred  and  twenty  or  so  cursive,  run 
ning-hand  manuscripts?  Which  is  the  final 
text?  Experts  cannot  tell.  The  most  learned 
men  that  have  given  their  lives  to  this  question 
of  the  text  of  the  New  Testament  differ ;  their 
readings  do  not  agree. 

No,  that  apparently  is  not  God's  way  of 
working.  He  does  not  seem  to  work  by  pyra 
mids,  but  mountains.  He  does  not  work  by 
geometrical  designs.  He  does  not  work  by  up 
setting  laws.  He  "  works  in  a  mysterious  way, 
His  wonders  to  perform."  He  takes  the  mind 


214.         SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

of  man  and  uses  it  for  all  that  it  is  worth  to 
develop  the  soul  of  man  that  is  within. 

Now,  as  to  the  second  idea  of  inspiration. 
Men,  swinging  away  from  bondage  to  a  con 
ception  like  that  of  the  dictated  Bible — a  bond 
age  which,  after  all,  puts  a  burden  upon  the 
soul  of  man  that  neither  we  nor  our  fathers 
could  bear;  a  bondage  from  which  he  does 
well  who  sets  us  free — I  say,  swinging  to  the 
opposite  extreme,  men  say :  "  Why,  the  Bible  is 
no  more  inspired  than  any  other  book.  It  is 
just  like  Shakespeare.  It  is  just  like  Al  Koran. 
It  is  just  like  the  sayings  of  Confucius.  It  is 
like  Goethe.  It  is  like  Milton.  It  is  like 
Dante.  It  is  like  Browning.  It  is  inspired,  as 
these  great  writers  are  inspired,  and  only  as 
these  great  writers  are  inspired."  We  may 
well  believe  in  the  inspiration  of  Shakespeare, 
in  the  inspiration  of  Dante,  in  the  inspira 
tion  of  Goethe,  and  of  the  Koran,  and  of 
Confucius.  Shall  we  say  that,  when  Shake 
speare  tells  us  "  all  the  world's  a  stage, 
and  all  the  men  and  women  merely  play 
ers,"  he  is  giving  us  no  truth,  handed  down 
to  us  from  God?  When  Shakespeare  pictures 
for  us  Hamlet  and  his  hesitancy,  holding  as 
it  were  a  mirror  up  to  nature  for  so  many  of 
us,  shall  we  say  that  there  is  no  truth  of  God 
given  to  us  by  the  great  Bard  of  Avon  ?  When 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED         215 

Confucius  gives  us  the  Golden  Rule  five  cen 
turies  before  Jesus  uttered  it,  shall  we  say  that 
Jesus  was  inspired  when  He  declared  it,  and 
Confucius  was  not?  When  the  Koran  keeps 
hundreds  of  millions  of  Turks  and  Persians- 
and  Egyptians  temperate,  drinking  no  wine, 
shall  we  say  that  the  Koran  has  no  inspira 
tion  in  it?  These  books  have  divine  truth  in 
them,  messages  from  God  to  men. 

There  is,  however,  a  double  test  by  which  the 
profundity  of  inspiration  can  be  sounded :  How 
much  truth  ?  How  much  needed  truth  ?  Those 
two  questions — there  is  the  test  of  inspira 
tion,  is  it  not?  and  the  only  test,  and  the  final 
test. 

If  it  is  true,  it  is  of  God.  Wherever  truth 
is,  it  comes  from  God.  Whoever  finds  truth 
gets  it  from  God,  gives  it  to  men,  is  the  herald 
of  God,  as  the  channel  through  which  God's 
spirit  flows.  Is  it  Winchell,  with  his  geolog 
ical  hammer?  Does  he  give  truth?  Then  it 
comes  from  God.  Is  it  Darwin,  with  his  bi 
ological  investigations?  If  he  gives  truth,  it 
comes  from  God.  Is  it  the  great  dramatist,  pic 
turing  a  Shylock,  a  Portia,  a  Macbeth,  a  King 
Lear?  Does  he  give  truth?  It  comes  from 
God.  Is  it  Confucius  teaching  reverence  for 
age,  kindliness  to  parents?  It  is  just  as  true 
as  the  commandment,  "  Thou  shalt  honor  thy 


216          SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

father  and  thy  mother."  Wherever  the  truth 
is,  it  is  God's  truth;  and  whencesoever  the 
truth  comes,  it  comes  from  God ;  and  the  ques 
tion  simply  is,  What  is  the  quantity  of  truth? 
What  is  the  degree  of  truth  ?  Thus  you  test  a 
document  as  to  its  inspiration. 

How  much  truth  does  Confucius  give  ?  Does 
he  give  enough  to  make  a  modern  civilization  ? 
Does  he  give  enough  to  make  peace?  Happi 
ness?  Does  he  give  enough  to  cleanse  the 
gutters,  and  to  send  the  streams  of  clear  water, 
to  save  and  not  to  destroy  the  lives  of  men? 
Does  he  give  enough,  in  this  scientific  age,  to 
eradicate  germs,  micro-organisms,  just  as  fast 
as  science  teaches  us  to  do  it?  If  he  gives 
that  truth — that  practical  truth — then  it  is  di 
rectly  of  God.  But  we  find  no  documents, 
anywhere,  that  give  the  amount  of  truth,  and 
needed  truth,  that  we  find  in  these  books  of 
Sacred  Scripture.  Take  all  the  scientists ;  take 
all  the  religionists;  take  all  the  philosophers, 
the  poets,  and  the  litterateurs — have  they  the 
amount  of  truth,  and  the  kind  of  truth,  that  the 
soul  of  man  is  hungry  and  thirsty  after,  con 
tained  in  the  Sacred  Scripture?  If  so,  then 
they  are  inspired  just  as  these  books  are  in 
spired.  If  not,  they  are  not. 

Now,  a  rapid  survey  of  these  books.  There 
are,  in  the  Old  Testament,  certain  historical 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED          217 

books,  giving  us  a  beautiful  and  naive  and 
highly  literary  account  of  creation,  that  has  not 
been  surpassed  by  Milton,  or  Dante,  or  Dar 
win,  or  any  of  the  rest;  and  then  there  follow 
a  set  of  laws,  adapted  to  the  age,  admirably 
adapted  to  the  age,  in  which  they  were  given, 
some  six  centuries  before  Christ.  Then  there 
comes  devotional  literature,  psalms,  Job,  and 
the  like,  that  still  have  not  been  surpassed,  as 
the  utterances  of  the  soul  striving  to  express 
itself  to  God.  Then,  the  sermons  and  orations 
of  great  statesmen  like  Isaiah,  and  Jeremiah, 
Amos,  and  Hosea,  also  adapted  to  the  age  in 
which  they  were  spoken,  and  the  difficulties 
under  which  the  nation  was  then  laboring. 

Then,  closing  the  book  of  the  Old  Testa 
ment,  which  has  been  superseded,  just  as  Jesus 
closed  the  book  in  the  Synagogue  and  sat 
down  to  talk,  and  just  as  He  said,  over  and 
over,  "  Ye  have  heard  that  it  hath  been  said 
by  them  of  old  time,  but,  verily  I  say  unto 
you,"  here  are  the  first  four  gospels;  and  is 
there  any  literature  in  the  world  that  could 
take  the  place  of  them?  The  Epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  and  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles — can  you 
find  the  same  amount  of  truth,  and  the  truth 
needed,  anywhere  else  in  the  world,  as  in  these 
books?  If  you  were  placed  upon  a  desert 


218         SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

island,  to  live  the  rest  of  your  life  as  an  Alex 
ander  Selkirk,  what  book  would  you  choose  to 
go  with  you?  Shakespeare?  Very  precious. 
We  love  to  turn  his  pages,  before  the  fire  on 
winter  nights,  and  go  with  his  great  characters, 
stalking  across  the  stage  of  the  world.  Would 
it  be  Robert  Louis  Stevenson? — appropriate 
for  a  desert  island.  Dante?  Beautiful.  Would 
it  be  Milton  with  his  song  "  never  yet  attempted 
in  prose  or  rhyme  "  ?  Not  Milton.  Could  we 
live  and  die  with  Al  Koran?  or  with  the  classics 
of  Confucius?  or  with  the  songs  of  Veda?  with 
the  Sankhya  or  Vedanta  of  India?  None  of 
these.  If  you  had  to  live  alone;  if  you  had 
to  die  alone;  if  you  had  to  front  the  hardness 
of  Nature  alone;  if  you  had  to  fight  the  rest 
of  the  fight  of  life,  unaided  and  alone;  if  you 
had  to  die  in  the  darkness,  you  would  say, 
"  Give  me  these  four  books — Matthew,  Mark, 
Luke,  and  John !  "  And  if  you  had  to  take  one 
of  them,  perhaps  you  would  take  John;  and 
would  cling  to  it  as  to  a  life  raft  in  a  stormy 
sea.  What  other  book  could  you  take,  for  life 
and  death? 

The  Bible  is  not  inspired,  then,  just  as 
Shakespeare.  There  is  not  the  same  sort  of 
inspiration.  This  leads  to  the  third  possible 
position,  and  that  is,  that  these  books  are  in 
spired  as  other  books  are,  but  more  so ;  that  the 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED          219 

difference  is  so  great  in  degree  that  it  amounts 
to  a  difference  in  kind. 

That  is  ground  upon  which  our  feet  can 
rest,  and  rest  satisfactorily.  It  gives  freedom, 
and  it  gives  assurance.  It  gives  liberty  to  think 
for  one's  self,  and  to  move  for  one's  self  in 
the  world  of  spirit;  and  at  the  same  time  it 
gives  a  rock  upon  which  to  stand. 

Let  us  illustrate  it  in  this  way :  All  men  are 
divine,  but  Jesus  is  more  divine  than  any  man, 
or  all  men.  There  is  not  a  man  so  degraded 
that  has  not  the  spark  of  divinity  somewhere 
in  his  soul.  Underneath  the  callus  of  ma 
terialism,  of  sordidness,  of  wickedness,  of 
shame  and  sinfulness,  every  man  has  at  least  a 
divine  spark.  That  much,  this  age  firmly  be 
lieves.  Sometimes  that  spark  is  fanned  into  a 
flame,  and  we  see  men  in  whom  divinity  shines ; 
men  whose  lives,  whose  actions,  whose  very 
faces  are  aflame  with  the  presence  of  God  in 
their  souls.  But  we  see  no  man  so  divine  as 
Jesus  Christ.  He  is  unique.  He  is  in  a  class 
all  by  himself.  He  is  to  us  the  picture  of  God, 
the  express  revelation  of  the  Father.  He  is  so 
divine  as  to  be  different  in  kind.  We  can, 
then,  speak  of  the  divineness  of  man,  but  the 
divinity  of  Christ. 

Now,  in  precisely  the  same  way  there  are, 
of  books  that  have  any  truth  in  them,  with  a 


220          SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

spark  of  inspiration,  some  books  that  are  more 
inspired  than  other  books.  The  spark  is  some 
times  fanned  into  a  rich,  beautiful  flame,  and 
they  glow  with  the  presence  of  God.  But  these 
sacred  books — these  Scriptures — are  so  in 
spired  with  such  unique  truth,  and  needed 
truth,  and  so  much  truth  and  needed  truth, 
that  their  inspiration  amounts  to  a  difference  in 
kind. 

Does  that  satisfy  the  mind  ?  Some  one  says, 
then,  immediately,  "If  that  is  the  case,  how 
am  I  going  to  separate  between  truth  and  error 
in  a  book  which  you  confess  is  fallible?" 
There  will  be  no  difficulty  about  that.  We  do 
not  go  to  these  books  to  study  astronomy;  we 
do  not  come  here  to  study  geology ;  we  do  not 
come  to  these  books  to  study  biology.  For 
these  we  go  to  scientists,  to  their  laboratories, 
and  the  latest  pamphlets  issued  from  the  labora 
tories.  We  come  here  after  a  certain  kind  of 
truth;  not  after  history,  simply,  but  after  the 
truth  that  the  hungry,  thirsty  soul  needs — the 
truth  that  makes  for  righteousness. 

There  is  no  difficulty  about  the  soul  recog 
nizing  the  truth,  and  dividing  between  what  is 
necessary  and  unnecessary  truth,  what  is  valu 
able  and  valueless  truth.  We  take,  for  ex 
ample,  the  writings  of  St.  Paul.  Does  the  most 
conservative  modern  churchman  accept  all  of 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED         221 

them?  Indubitably  not.  Even  the  man  who 
claims  that  the  book  is  infallible,  inspired,  let 
ter  by  letter,  word  by  word,  does  not  take  the 
writings  of  St.  Paul  at  their  face  value,  and 
obey  them.  He  lets  his  wife  come  to  church 
and  sit  beside  him,  without  a  veil  across  her 
face,  which  St.  Paul  expressly  forbade.  He 
lets  his  wife  go  to  prayer  meeting  and  stand 
up  and  talk  in  prayer  meeting,  which  St.  Paul 
expressly  forbade.  He  goes  and  marries  him 
a  wife,  which  St.  Paul  said  was  not  an  expedi 
ent  thing  to  do.  St.  Paul  was  writing  for  that 
age.  A  Christian  woman,  surrounded  by 
veiled  women,  who  should  take  away  the  veil 
from  off  her  face  would  have  made  herself 
conspicuous  and  offensive  in  the  community. 
A  Christian  woman  who  should  stand  up  in 
the  meetings  of  that  day  and  talk  would  have 
been  an  offence  to  all  the  heathen  and  the  Jews 
about  her;  and  St.  Paul  forbade  it.  He  ex 
pected  the  second  coming  of  our  Lord  so  soon, 
that  he  thought  marriage  inexpedient,  both  for 
himself  and  for  others.  How,  again,  are  we  to 
reconcile  the  fact  that  in  his  early  letters  Paul 
urged  the  churches  to  prepare  for  the  immedi 
ate  coming  of  the  Lord,  and  in  the  later  letters, 
such  as  first  and  second  Timothy,  and  Titus, 
he  had  given  up  the  expectation  of  the  immedi 
ate  advent? 


222         SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

We  should  be,  if  obeying  the  letter  of  the 
New  Testament  Scriptures,  washing  each 
others'  feet  today.  It  is  just  as  expressly  com 
manded  as  Christian  baptism  or  the  Lord's 
Supper.  One  cannot  get  around  it ;  for,  on  that 
same  last  night  in  which  he  ordained  the  Lord's 
Supper,  our  Saviour  took  a  basin,  and  girded 
Himself  with  a  towel,  and  went  from  disciple 
to  disciple,  and  washed  their  feet;  and  He  said, 
"If  your  Lord  and  Master  wash  your  feet,  ye 
also  ought  to  wash  one  another's  feet."  The 
literalist  cannot  get  away  from  that.  If  we 
are  going  to  fulfil  every  iota  of  the  commands 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  let  us  join  the  sect 
which  washes  feet,  and  go  at  it. 

No,  the  mind  can  accept  the  truth,  and  the 
needed  truth;  the  mind  can  divide;  the  soul 
of  man  recognizes  the  truth  when  he  sees  it, 
and  the  truth  when  he  needs  it.  The  soul  has 
an  infinite  right  to  truth.  The  soul  has  a  kin 
ship  for  the  truth.  The  soul  knows  the  truth 
when  it  meets  it  in  the  street,  in  the  market, 
in  the  home,  in  the  forest,  and  in  the  field. 
They — truth  and  the  soul — belong  together. 
They  rush  together  as  the  particles  of  mercury 
upon  a  table  run  and  flow  one  into  the  other. 
The  human  soul  is  practically  infallible,  in  its 
recognition  of  the  truth  and  the  needed  truth ; 
and  when  you  ask  the  question,  "  How  am  I  to 


SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED         223 

draw  the  line  between  historical  accuracy  and 
inaccuracy?  How  am  I  to  know  whether  the 
genealogy  of  Matthew  is  correct,  or  whether 
the  genealogy  of  Luke  is  correct?"  you  are 
distrusting  your  own  intellect;  you  are  simply 
saying  to  yourself,  "  I  am  helpless  in  the  face 
of  apparent  contradiction;  I  don't  know  what 
to  accept;  I  don't  know  what  to  do."  Trust 
yourself !  Trust  your  soul !  Trust  your  mind ! 
Your  mind  and  soul  will  recognize  the  truth 
needed,  and  grasp  it,  and  accept  it.  For  other 
things  you  need  not  care. 

What  is  this  truth  that  our  souls  need,  that 
we  find  here,  and  do  not  find  in  Confucius,  nor 
the  Koran,  nor  the  Vedantas,  nor  the  Shake- 
speares,  nor  the  Dantes,  nor  the  Miltons?  It 
is  immortality  and  eternal  life,  brought  to  light 
through  Jesus  Christ  in  His  gospel ;  it  is  salva 
tion,  redemption  from  sin  and  the  weight  of  it 
and  the  consciousness  of  it,  that  every  one  of 
us  bears;  it  is  God  manifest  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  Christ — God,  for  whom  the  soul  thirsts 
as  the  hart  pants  for  the  water-brooks.  It  is 
the  love  of  God,  taught  by  the  Christ  when 
in  the  world.  It  is  the  fatherhood  of  God, 
that  Jesus  and  nobody  else  has  ever  taught. 
It  is  the  brotherhood  of  fellow-men,  that  Jesus 
and  nobody  else  has  ever  proclaimed.  These 
are  the  truths,  and  the  needed  truths,  that  this 


224         SCRIPTURES  INSPIRED 

book,  and  this  book  alone,  brings.  We  can 
not  live,  and  we  cannot  die,  without  it! 

It  is  a  well-worn  old  story,  that  Walter 
Scott,  who  himself  had  written  so  many  beau 
tiful  songs  and  books,  when  at  last  his  hour 
came  to  die,  and  he  knew  it,  said,  "  Son,  bring 
me  the  Book  " ;  and  his  son  said,  "  What  book, 
father?  Do  you  mean  Homer?"  "No." 
"Do  you  mean  Virgil?"  "No."  Scott  loved 
to  read  these  ancient  classics.  "  Do  you  mean 
Shakespeare?  "  "  No."  ""What  book,  father?  " 
Scott  said :  "  My  son,  there  is  only  one  Book. 
Bring  me  The  Book— The  Bible !  "  And  when 
he  got  it,  he  put  his  head  upon  it.  He  could 
not  read  it  any  more,  but  he  laid  his  head  upon 
that  book,  to  die. 

It  is  for  us  to  plant  our  feet  upon  that  Book, 
to  live,  to  stand;  it  is  for  us  to  fold  it  to  our 
hearts  to  die. 


THE  POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

EVER  the  phrase  "Endless  Life"  is 
powerful;  it  divides  humanity  into  two 
opposing  camps,  one  yearning  for  im 
mortality,  one  desirous  of  the  sleep  that  knows 
no  waking.  Just  as  half  the  globe  is  bathed 
in  sunlight,  and  the  other  half  covered  with 
night,  so,  roughly  speaking,  does  half  of  the 
human  race  desire  and  expect  an  endless  life, 
and  the  other  half  yearn  for  and  look  forward 
to  extinction.  In  general,  the  West  looks  for 
life  and  the  East  hopes  for  death.  And 
whether 

"  East  is  East  and  West  is  West, 
And  never  the  twain  shall  meet, 
Till  earth  and  sky  stand  presently 
At  God's  great  judgment  seat!" 

is  true  or  false;  whether  the  two  shall  meet 
and  mingle  in  this  present  world  or  not;  cer 
tain  it  is  that  they  are  very  far  apart  at  this 
hour  regarding  many  things,  not  the  least  of 
which  is  the  question  of  the  future  life.  There 

225 


226     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

is  considerable  difference  of  opinion  as  to  just 
what  is  the  teaching,  for  example,  of  Buddha 
upon  this  subject;  but  the  statements  just  made 
are,  nevertheless,  fairly  safe. 

When  St.  Paul,  on  the  Areopagus,  reached, 
in  his  discourse,  the  expression,  "  the  resur 
rection  from  the  dead,"  his  auditors  would 
listen  no  further;  they  laughed  him  out  of 
court;  his  message  was  snapped  off  like  the 
thread  of  fate.  So  repugnant  was  the  idea  of 
resurrection  to  a  Greek  that  he  could  not  listen 
with  tolerance  to  one  who  set  it  forth.  Buddha 
taught  millions  of  people  that  the  passage 
through  life  after  life,  in  a  long  chain  of 
bondage  to  the  flesh,  might,  by  persistent  virtue, 
ultimately  be  terminated  by  absorption  into 
the  infinite  and  the  loss  of  personal  identity. 
This  was  the  consummation  devoutly  to  be 
wished.  So  with  many  others  of  the  Sacred 
Teachers  of  the  East. 

On  the  other  hand,  for  at  least  two  thousand 
years,  the  Western  World  has  longed  for  life, 
endless  life;  hoped  for  life,  endless  life.  It 
has  felt  its  inability  to  prove  that  future ;  and 
at  this  hour  there  is  no  question  upon  which 
the  ordinary  man  is  more  doubtful  and  hesitant 
and  upon  which  he  is  so  anxious  for  knowl 
edge.  In  his  hour  of  need,  the  hope  reaches 
him,  and  touches  and  kindles  his  heart.  Mr. 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     227 

Ingersoll  again,  in  the  finest  of  the  many  fine 
words  he  uttered, — the  little  one  minute  speech 
at  his  brother's  burial  in  Washington, — has  this 
to  say : 

"  Life  is  a  narrow  vale  between  the  cold  and 
barren  peaks  of  two  eternities.  We  strive  in 
vain  to  look  beyond  the  heights,  we  cry  aloud ; 
and  the  only  answer  is  the  echo  of  our  wail 
ing  cry.  From  the  voiceless  lips  of  the  unre- 
plying  dead,  there  comes  no  word.  But  in  the 
night  of  death,  hope  sees  a  star,  and  listening 
love  can  hear  the  rustle  of  a  wing." 

When  death  touched  his  own  home,  hope 
and  the  star  appeared.  That  hope  was  planted 
by  Him  who  spoke  as  man  never  spake;  and 
His  words  once  uttered  will  not  down. 

Half  the  fear  of  death  is  due  to  the  law  of 
self-preservation.  We  are  made  to  save  our 
lives  and  not  to  throw  them  away.  If  this  in 
stinct  were  not  in  us,  we  should,  too  often,  our 
quietus  make  with  a  bare  bodkin.  Dr.  Reif- 
snider,  the  president  of  St.  Paul's  College  in 
Tokio,  is  authority  for  the  statement,  quoted  in 
the  Associated  Press,  that  five  per  cent  of  the 
Japanese  students  today  are  committing  sui 
cide.  One  college  is  located  near  a  cataract  and 
one  near  a  crater.  Guards  are  kept  constantly 
about  these,  and  still  the  young  men  slip  past 
the  military  cordon,  and  throw  themselves  over 


228     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

the  one  or  into  the  other.  Five  per  cent! 
Fancy  the  furore  if  this  should  take  place  in 
America!  Five  per  cent  of  the  students  of  a 
single  great  State  University  would  be  one 
hundred  and  fifty  to  three  hundred  a  year. 
Five  per  cent  in  all  America  would  be  possibly 
ten  thousand.  Half  an  army  corps  of  young 
officers — not  enlisted  men!  The  president  of 
St.  Paul's  should  be  good  authority;  and  he 
claims  that  this  awful  sacrifice  of  precious  life 
is  due  to  the  loss  of  all  religious  belief.  Even 
Buddhism  would  hold  out  hope  enough  to  pre 
vent  this  destruction,  but  Buddhism  is  fast 
losing  in  Japan.  It  must  be  deep  hopelessness, 
indeed,  that  thus  can  overcome  the  inherent, 
natural  dread  of  death. 

The  other  half  of  the  fear  of  death  is  due 
to  its  mystery.  "  Who  would  fardels  bear,  to 
grunt  and  sweat  under  a  weary  life,  but  that 
the  dread  of  something  after  death,  the  un 
discovered  country  from  whose  bourne  no 
traveller  returns,  puzzles  the  will  and  makes 
us  rather  bear  those  ills  we  have,  than  fly  to 
others  that  we  know  not  of?"  Ignorance  is 
always  the  mother  of  fear. 

Yet  why  dread  the  mysterious?  Birth  is 
equally  and  beautifully  mysterious.  Religion 
is  mysterious.  Life  is  mysterious.  He  would 
do  well  who  should  set  us  free  from  that  dread 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     229 

of  death  which  is  due  to  mystery.  Maurice 
Maeterlinck  has  a  beautiful  little  essay  on  the 
subject  in  which  he  reaches  the  conclusion  that 
pain,  distress,  uncertainty,  all  these  belong  to 
life  not  death,  and  that  in  itself  death  can 
neither  be  painful,  distressing,  nor  anxious. 
Nature  gives  her  merciful  anaesthetic. .  Further 
he  concludes  that  whatever  the  future  holds,  it 
cannot  be  bad,  it  must  be  good.  Charles  Froh- 
man  will  long  be  remembered  for  his  last 
words,  spoken  on  the  sinking  Lusitania, 
"  Death  is  life's  most  beautiful  adventure." 

Shall  we  never  reach  the  time  when  we  shall 
say  good-bye  to  those  who  embark  upon  that 
adventure,  even  as  friends  who  assemble  at  the 
pier  and  wave  adieus  to  loved  ones  going  on 
a  pleasant  voyage?  Tears  may  flow  at  the 
separation,  for  that  we  too  are  not  embarking, 
but  mingled  with  the  gentle  sadness  shall  there 
not  be  joy  for  the  beloved,  sailing  away  into  the 
sunlit,  summer  seas? 

And  the  first  five  minutes  after  death !  Can 
imagination  picture  it?  Is  it  like  the  awaken 
ing  from  an  anaesthetic?  One  comes  tumbling 
down  out  of  the  dark,  floating  down; — out  of 
the  dark,  into  the  light ;  the  glimmering  square 
grows  gradually  light.  Even  the  gnawing, 
numbing  pain  cannot  overcome  the  intoxica 
tion  of  growing  consciousness  and  the  welcome 


230     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

beauty  of  faces  and  the  world.  No,  it  is  hardly 
like  this.  There  cannot  be  so  much  of  shock 
and  distress.  God  shall  wipe  away  all  tears. 
It  shall  be  like  the  awakening  from  healthful 
sleep  to  happy  sunlight. 

But  let  us  be  careful  not  to  let  our  imagina 
tions  run  away.  Let  us  ask  the  common  man 
in  the  street  what  he  thinks,  what  he  believes; 
and  then  let  us  try  to  set  it  down. 

He  does  not  believe  in  the  resurrection  of 
the  body.  He  does  not  believe  in  a  literal  hell 
of  fire  and  devils.  He  does  not  believe  in  an 
eternity  of  punishment  for  any  mortal.  So 
much  for  the  negative. 

He  does  believe  in  personal  immortality.  He 
does  believe  in  swift  and  sure  reformatory 
punishment  for  sin.  He  does  believe  in  the 
ultimate  prevalence  and  triumph  of  righteous 
ness  and  the  cleansing  of  the  whole  universe 
from  all  that  is  evil  and  wrong.  So  much  for 
the  affirmative. 

That,  in  a  nutshell,  is  the  current,  popular 
belief.  It  may  not  be  yours,  but  it  is  that  of 
your  neighbor,  if  he  would  speak  it  out.  You 
have  a  right  to  yours.  You  may  differ  from 
him,  and  you  have  as  good  a  right  to  think 
as  you  do,  as  he  has  to  think  as  he  does.  Let 
us  compare  the  ideas. 

First  of  all,  he  believes  in  personal  immor- 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     231 

tality  beyond  the  grave,  not  in  the  survival  of 
the  body  in  the  resurrection.  Consequently,  he 
is  unable  to  repeat  literally  that  clause  in  the 
Apostles'  Creed,  "  I  believe  in  the  resurrection 
of  the  body."  It  seems  scientifically  impos 
sible  that  this  body  should  survive;  and  it 
seems  highly  undesirable  that  this  body  should 
be  saddled  upon  one  and  bound  round  one's 
spirit  through  all  the  reaches  of  eternity.  We 
should  dislike  very  much  to  go  into  the  other 
world  with  this  ailing,  this  decaying,  this 
crippled  frame.  We  want  to  go  there  with 
what  Paul  calls  a  celestial  body  freed  from 
danger  and  distress  and  limitation.  So,  we 
believe  that  the  spirit  survives,  and  not  this 
chemical  combination. 

Does  the  man  in  the  street  believe,  then,  in 
the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ?  Yes,  but  not 
in  the  permanence  of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Now,  we  do  not  know  very  much  about  His 
resurrection.  We  can  speculate;  and  we  can 
read  the  accounts  as  they  are  given.  But  we 
do  not  know  what  became  of  that  body.  It  is 
inconceivable  that,  after  three  days'  chemical 
change  which,  according  to  natural  law,  we 
know  goes  on  in  the  stagnant  blood  and  lymph 
and  tissues  of  a  lifeless  form,  that  body  could, 
without  contravention  of  divine  law,  be  re 
stored  in  a  moment's  time.  God  does  not  seem 


232     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

to  act  in  that  way.  That  Jesus  Christ  arose 
from  the  dead,  the  common  man  is  thoroughly 
convinced;  that  in  some  form  or  other,  we 
know  not  what,  He  appeared  to  His  disciples, 
he  firmly  believes;  that  He  showed  them  the 
nail  prints  in  His  hands  and  the  spear  wound 
in  His  side;  but  that  at  the  same  time  He 
passed  through  closed  doors  and  appeared  sud 
denly  in  the  midst, — these  things  also  he  be 
lieves.  That  he  is  alive  today,  we  all  know, 
and  for  ever  more  alive.-  Yes,  the  ordinary 
man  believes  in  the  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ, 
in  the  resurrection  of  you,  of  himself.  But 
these  bodies  of  ours  must  return  to  the  dust 
whence  they  came,- — earth  to  earth,  ashes  to 
ashes,  dust  to  dust. 

It  seems  also  equally  inconceivable  that  the 
spirit  of  man  should  ever  be  quenched.  We 
know  we  cannot  prove  either  the  one  statement, 
or  the  other.  It  is  impossible  for  anybody  to 
prove  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  None  of 
the  philosophers  and  theologians  have  ever  suc 
ceeded  in  doing  it.  They  have  tried,  with  all 
the  ingenuity  and  all  the  genius  at  their  com 
mand,  and  there  has  been  no  final  demonstra 
tion,  conclusive,  like  a  mathematical  theorem 
fully  set  forth,  of  personal  immortality.  There 
are  certain  arguments,  certain  indications,  cer 
tain  intimations,  which  point  the  way  toward 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     233 

that  conclusion;  but  there  has  been  no  final 
proof. 

The  universal  hope  of  man  has  been  pointed 
out  as  a  possible  proof  of  the  immortality  of 
the  soul;  but  we  have  first  to  take  into  con 
sideration,  as  has  already  been  suggested,  that 
the  hope  for  immortality  is  far  from  universal. 
A  large  portion  of  the  human  race  desires  noth 
ing  so  much  as  extinction.  The  whole  Hindu 
world,  it  is  fairly  safe  to  say,  is  seeking  with 
the  most  earnest  yearning  for  disappearance, 
for  the  grave  that  knows  no  waking,  for  the 
extinction  of  all  life;  and  there  are  at  least 
three  hundred  millions  of  those  Hindus.  No; 
the  hope  is  not  universal,  and  it  has  not  always 
been  even  an  idea  in  the  minds  of  men  and 
women. 

The  fact  is  that  the  Hebrew  Scriptures,  for 
the  most  part,  have  nothing  to  say  about  im 
mortality  and  eternal  life.  In  the  Old  Testa 
ment  there  is  only  a  f  oreglimpse  here  and  there, 
to  indicate  that  the  people  of  Israel  has  even 
thought  of  such  a  possibility. 

In  all  the  literature  of  the  Greeks,  who  were 
the  teachers  of  antiquity,  who  gave  their 
philosophy,  their  learning,  and  their  intellectual 
attitude  to  Rome, — Rome  which  conquered  the 
Greeks,  and  then  in  turn  was  conquered  by 
them, — in  all  Greek  literature  there  is  scarcely 


234     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

a  word  indicating  any  certitude  of  hope  in 
immortality.  We  find  Homer  in  one  place  put 
ting  it  into  the  mouth  of  Achilles,  in  the  realm 
of  the  departed,  to  say: 

" '  Talk  not  of  reigning  in  this  dolorous  gloom, 
Nor  think/  he  said,  '  vain  words  can  ease  my  doom. 
Better  by  far  a  weight  of  woes  to  bear, 
And  in  affliction  breathe  the  vital  air, 
Slave  to  the  meanest  hind  that  begs  his  bread, 
Than  reign  the  sceptred  monarch  of  the  dead.' " 

Poor  ghost!  A  sad  outlook  for  a  great 
King  among  shades. 

Pindar  has  a  little  passage  in  his  odes  con 
cerning  the  golden  islands  of  the  blest.  But 
these  were  reserved  only  for  the  few.  For  the 
great  multitude  of  departed  Greeks,  there  was 
no  hope  of  any  existence  beyond  the  grave. 

It  is  only  within  the  last  twenty  centuries,  or 
thereabout,  that  there  has  been  any  wide  ex 
pectation  of  immortality — certainly,  any  deeply 
grounded  hope  of  immortality — or  any  abiding 
conviction  that,  if  a  man  dies,  he  shall  live 
again.  So  the  argument  derived  from  univer 
sal  hope  falls  to  the  ground. 

Modern  science,  however,  helps  us  with  cer 
tain  indications.  It  has  taught  us  all  as  chil 
dren  in  the  public  school  that  nothing  that  is 
ever  made  goes  out  of  existence.  We  call  this, 
in  our  text-books,  the  law  of  conservation  of 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     235 

matter  and  of  the  conservation  of  force.  Mat 
ter  may  change.  The  wood  in  this  desk  may 
decay ;  but  the  particles  of  which  it  is  made  will 
still  be  in  existence.  You  may  burn  this  wood 
up  into  smoke,  but  the  particles  go  into  the 
smoke  and  into  the  ashes  and  into  the  gases  that 
are  given  off.  Every  atom  of  it  is  there  when 
the  process  of  disintegration  has  been  com 
pleted. 

Now,  if  that  is  true  in  the  physical  world — 
true  of  matter — true  of  force,  of  heat,  of  elec 
tricity — may  it  not  be  equally  true — is  it  not 
likely  that  it  is  equally  true — of  that  mysteri 
ous,  intangible,  unknown  substance  or  force 
which  constitutes  the  soul,  the  inner  life  of 
man?  Many  men  have  gradually  come  to  be 
lieve  in  the  conservation  of  spirit  as  well  as  in 
the  conservation  of  matter  and  of  force. 

But  there  is  no  proof  in  anything  Sir  Oliver 
Lodge  has  said — no  proof  in  the  experiments 
of  the  psychological  laboratories,  or  the  so 
cieties  for  psychical  research.  We  cannot 
prove  beyond  the  shadow  of  a  doubt  that,  if 
a  man  dies,  he  shall  live  again;  but  we  believe 
it.  Most  of  us  cannot  help  but  believe  it,  since 
Jesus  came  and  taught  it.  Absorption  in  ma 
terialism,  a  condition  steeped  in  crime  and  sin, 
utter  despair  of  one's  self  and  of  life,  may  lead 
a  man  to  an  opposite  conviction.  But  for  the 


236     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

most  part,  we  believe  it,  whether  we  can  prove 
it  or  not.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  once  said : 

"  I  am  sorry  if  I  have  been  betrayed  into 
saying  anything  that  requires  proof." 

There  are  certain  things  in  which  we  believe 
in  spite  of  ourselves,  knowing  perfectly  well 
that  we  cannot  demonstrate  them.  We  believe 
in  God,  and  nobody  can  prove  God.  We  be 
lieve  in  eternal  life,  and  nobody  can  demon 
strate  it. 

Our  ground  of  belief  in  immortality  is,  then, 
the  word  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  believe  in  it  be 
cause  He  told  us  we  might  and  should.  "  Ah 
then,"  says'  one,  "  you  are  returning  to  a  re 
ligion  of  authority.  You  are  subjecting  the 
reason.  You  are  accepting  something  on  mere 
authority."  Not  at  all.  The  reason  tells  us 
that  Jesus  knew  what  He  was  talking  about, 
while  nobody  else  ever  has  known  anything 
about  this  subject.  He  was  so  sane,  so  calm, 
so  sure  in  His  utterance  here ;  and  all  else  that 
He  ever  uttered  was  also  so  sane,  so  calm,  so 
sure;  and  all  has  been  so  amply  weighed  and 
tested  by  two  thousand  years  of  experience, 
that  He  could  not  have  been  mistaken  on  this, 
a  subject  so  vital  to  our  peace  of  mind. 

Now,  for  the  second  question,  concerning 
the  character  of  that  future  life,  concerning 
reward  and  punishment.  The  man  in  the  street 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE  .  237 

does  not  believe  in  the  literal  hell — the  lake  of 
fire,  the  brimstone,  the  steel  trident,  the  demon 
with  hoofs  and  horns  and  forked  tail.  At  all 
events,  he  rarely  believes  in  it  for  himself,  his 
wife,  or  his  sons.  He  may  think  he  believes 
in  it  for  some  other  man,  his  wife,  or  his  sons. 
Let  us  have  no  inclination  to  deal  with  this 
matter  lightly;  but  let  us  be  perfectly  frank  in 
stating  that  all  that  material  view  is  a  myth; 
it  is  not  justified  by  the  Scriptures.  If  there 
are  people  who  are  aggrieved  because  we  do 
not  believe  in  a  literal  hell,  we  are  sorry  that 
they  are  aggrieved.  If  we  disturb  them  by  our 
declaration  that  we  do  not  believe  in  a  personal 
devil,  we  are  sorry  that  they  cannot  get  along 
without  the  devil;  but  we  do  not  find  these 
things  in  our  Bible,  as  we  read  it  and  under 
stand  it  and  interpret  it.  But  we  do  read  of 
the  literal  hell  in  Dante's  "  Inferno,"  in  Mil 
ton's  "  Paradise  Lost  " ;  and  unconsciously, 
whether  we  have  ever  read  these  poems  or  not, 
we  have  woven  their  imagery  into  the  warp  and 
woof  of  our  English  thought, — yes,  of  Euro 
pean  thought, — until  today  we  think  it  is  in  the 
Holy  Scriptures.  There  is  only  a  chapter  or 
two  in  Matthew,  toward  the  close,  which  can 
even  be  bent  and  twisted  to  justify  such  ma 
terial  and  literal  conceptions  of  hell — Oriental 
language,  easily  understood  by  Orientals,  but 


238     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

easily  misconstrued  by  hard-headed,  literal 
Westerners. 

It  stands  to  reason  that  if  we  do  not  have 
this  body  after  a  few  years,  but  pass  out  into  a 
spiritual  existence,  we  cannot  be  tormented 
with  fire ;  we  cannot  be  pulled  at  with  pincers ; 
we  cannot  be  stretched  upon  a  gridiron.  We 
shall  have  no  nerves  and  sinews  and  muscles 
to  be  tormented  and  burned  and  stretched.  A 
literal  hell  may  play  its  part  in  the  unfolding, 
developing  life  of  a  child  or  a  childlike  race  of 
people ;  but  it  cannot  influence  or  affect  mature, 
sober-minded,  thoughtful  men  and  women.  A 
colored  preacher  last  winter,  in  discussing  this 
subject  with  the  author,  said  that  he  had  to 
preach  hell  to  his  people.  "  Why,"  he  said, 
"  if  I  don't  preach  hell  to  my  people,  you  would 
not  have  any  clothes  on  your  lines  or  chickens 
in  your  coops."  So  the  doctrine  may  serve 
its  purpose,  may  "  function  serviceably " 
amongst  a  childlike  people;  but  it  is  only  a 
hindrance,  a  shackle  about  the  feet  of  a  full- 
grown  man  or  nation. 

But  for  all  that,  we  believe  in  a  hell.  For 
all  that,  we  believe  in  swift  and  sure  punish 
ment  for  sin.  We  have  felt  it.  We  have  been 
in  it.  We  have  seen  it.  The  so-called  generous 
sins,  the  sins  of  the  flesh, — the  appetites  and 
desires  of  men  when  carried  to  excess, — bring 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     239 

every  one  of  them  its  punishment,  visibly, 
clearly,  plainly,  and  invariably.  There  never 
was  any  one  of  these  appetites  and  desires 
given  to  men  that  was  not  intended  for  legiti 
mate  use.  There  never  was  any  apple  in  any 
Garden  of  Eden  or  elsewhere  in  the  world, 
wholesome  for  food,  that  was  not  intended 
for  man  to  eat;  but  when  he  abuses  the  law, 
when  he  steps  beyond  the  bounds  of  the  natural 
prescription  of  what  is  just  and  right  and  tem 
perate,  he  must  pay,  and  pay  at  once,  and  pay 
the  uttermost  farthing. 

There  is  no  one,  for  example,  that  pays  more 
dearly  than  a  drunkard,  who  simply  abuses  the 
appetite  for  what  God  has  put  here  in  this  world 
for  legitimate  use.  He  pays.  Every  one  of  us 
sees  the  living  hell  of  it  round  about  us.  Even 
your  temperate  drinker — -he  also  pays.  Men 
are  coming  to  believe  that  no  one  is  so  well 
armed  in  the  use  of  spirits  as  he  is  in  absti 
nence.  His  head  is  not  so  clear,  his  nerves  are 
not  so  steady,  his  reliability  under  pressure  and 
stress  is  not  so  great.  There  are  many,  many 
other  kinds  of  intemperance  besides  this  one, 
and  every  one  of  them  brings  its  sure  fruitage. 

You  see  a  young  man — know  him  well — you 
have  passed  his  house  perhaps  every  day — who 
could  not  walk  a  step — had  not  walked  a  step 
for  years ;  crippled  beyond  all  usefulness  in  the 


240     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

world,  sinking  into  the  grave  before  gray  hairs 
had  come  into  his  head,  because  he  had  sinned 
— excessively  sinned.  Another  young  man  is 
brought  home  in  his  twenties  from  a  rapid 
round  of  excesses  and  intemperances — you 
could  hardly  bear  to  stand  by  his  side,  so 
bloated  and  repulsive  was  he;  he  comes  home 
before  he  is  thirty  to  die  upon  his  mother's 
breast. 

"  Gene  "  was  a  young  country  lad.  The 
strength  of  the  rocks  and  the  oaks  was  in  his 
frame.  The  breadth  and  the  breath  of  the 
plains  and  hills  was  on  his  face.  He  had  had 
charge  of  his  father's  estate  and  affairs,  which 
were  not  small.  He  wished  to  go  to  college; 
and  he  went  to  a  big  one.  The  boys  took  him 
in,  they  showed  him  all  that  was  to  be  seen. 
He  had  money.  He  had  personal  charm.  For 
six  months  or  so  things  went  very  merrily. 

Then  one  day  his  parents  received  a  letter 
saying,  "  Gene  is  ill ;  not  very  ill,  we  hope  he 
will  be  better  soon."  Then  hard  on  the  heels 
of  the  letter  came  a  telegram.  "  Gene  is  very 
ill.  Come  at  once." 

They  took  him  South ;  they  took  him  West ; 
they  took  him  everywhere  and  did  everything 
that  money  and  love  could  compass.  They 
were  told  that  he  had  taken  deep  cold.  Ay,  he 
had  taken  cold — and  more. 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     241 

And  today  he  sleeps  under  the  prairie  who 
ought  to  be  alive  and  doing  a  man's  work  in  the 
world.  He  paid  in  full;  and  more  yet,  others 
helped  to  pay. 

If  you  had  stood  by  the  side  of  beds  where 
preachers  and  doctors  stand — if  you  had  fre 
quented  hospitals  as  they  have  done;  if  you 
had  known  the  inside  life  of  families  as  they 
have,  you  would  never  say  that  they  do  not 
know  what  they  are  talking  about.  The  way 
of  the  transgressor  is  hard.  The  road  that  he 
treads  is  thorny  and  stony,  and  it  leads  to 
death.  The  soul  that  sinneth,  just  in  propor 
tion  as  it  sins,  shall  die.  There  never  was 
truer  word  written  in  Scripture  than  this: 
"  The  wages  of  sin  is  death." 

Let  us  turn  to  some  of  the  other  kinds  of 
sins.  There  is  the  man  who  worships  the 
golden  calf,  material  success,  material  ac 
quisition;  or  even  the  man  who  has  that  last 
infirmity  of  noble  minds,  the  lust  for  power; 
have  you  seen  his  face,  hardened  and  wrinkled 
and  shrivelled?  Yes,  now  and  again  you  see 
upon  your  streets  a  man  whose  countenance 
looks  like  that  of  the  eagle  upon  the  dollar. 
We  used  to  talk  about  the  bicycle  face,  and  now 
we  talk  about  the  motor-car  face;  but  worse 
than  these  is  the  money  face.  The  dollar  face 
is  indicative  of  a  shrivelled  soul.  So  we  might 


242      POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

follow  up  any  one  of  the  sins  of  men — the 
extravagances,  the  excesses,  and  every  one  of 
them  brings  its  penalty — its  painful  penalty. 

There  is  a  disease  which  they  call  the  harden 
ing  of  the  eyeball — glaucoma  is  the  technical 
term.  It  is  extremely  painful.  Sometimes,  in 
twenty- four  hours  the  sight  is  all  gone;  and 
then  sometimes,  the  blindness  passes  away  and 
the  patient  is  apparently  well  until  another  at 
tack  comes;  and  sometimes  the  long,  slow 
process  of  that  hardening  goes  on  for  sixteen 
or  eighteen  or  twenty  years  of  exquisite,  ex 
cruciating  pain.  The  hardening  of  the  eye  of 
the  soul  is  just  as  painful,  just  as  distressing 
as  any  lake  of  fire  could  ever  possibly  be. 

These  punishments,  however,  are  reforma 
tory  and  not  retributive.  We  are  coming  to 
believe,  in  our  study  of  penology,  that  nobody 
should  be  punished  through  revenge;  that 
criminals  should  be  put,  not  into  prisons,  but 
reformatories;  sent  to  school,  taught  trades; 
that  there  should  be  no  definite  sentence,  but, 
so  far  as  possible,  an  indeterminate  one.  We 
are  beginning  to  believe  that  a  man  may  be 
transformed  under  punishment,  until  he  may 
be  restored  to  his  home  again  and  given  at 
last  the  freedom  from  crime  and  from  the 
tendency  to  crime  that  has  held  him  down. 
Now,  that  principle  works  out  in  all  our  human 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     243 

life.  A  little  child  is  wild  and  rebellious. 
Just  a  few  cuts  of  a  keen  switch,  and  how  he 
does  melt  and  how  humble  he  becomes;  his 
rebellion  seems  to  flow  out  with  his  tears. 
Sometimes  a  man  never  looks  up  to  God  until 
the  lash  is  laid  upon  his  back.  Sometimes  a 
man  never  thinks,  but  rushes  blindly  on  in  his 
course  of  life  until  his  punishment  is  visited 
heavily  upon  his  head.  How  long  his  reforma 
tion  may  take  must  depend  upon  him. 

It  is  very  difficult  of  belief  that  any  indi 
vidual  is  punished  for  an  eternity.  Punish 
ment  will  turn  any  man — even  a  fool — some 
day,  some  time;  and  we  cannot  believe — we 
cannot  find  it  possible  to  believe — that  there 
has  ever  been  committed  any  sin  or  crime  great 
enough  to  justify  a  good  God  in  punishing  a 
poor,  little,  weak  mortal  for  ever  and  for  ever 
and  for  ever.  We  cannot  believe  that  it  is 
possible  for  a  good  God  so  to  be  foiled,  so  to 
be  thwarted,  so  to  fail  as  that  any  evil  whatso 
ever  should  exist  for  ever  in  opposition  to 
Him. 

This  is  the  way  the  man  in  the  street  reasons. 
If  there  is  a  God,  and  there  is  a  God,  He  must 
be  good,  and  He  must  be  all-powerful;  other 
wise  He  would  not  be  God.  And  if  He  be  God 
and  good  and  all-powerful,  His  good  purposes 
must  prevail,  and  ultimately  all  things  must 


244     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

become  good.  Otherwise,  God  is  no  God.  We 
cannot  well  reason  otherwise.  If  we  do,  we 
shall  be  running  right  up  against  our  own  sense 
of  justice  and  right.  Truth  is  eternal,  a  lie  is 
temporal.  Right  is  eternal,  wrong  is  temporal. 
Therefore  a  time  must  come  when  all  false 
hood  and  all  wrong  shall  be  done  away,  and 
truth  and  right  shall  be  all  in  all.  Otherwise, 
there  are  two  equal  powers,  good  and  evil, 
neither  of  which  can  conquer  the  other,  and 
there  is  no  God. 

Some  believe  that  the  soul  which  should  in 
definitely  rebel  against  God  in  spite  of  all 
punishment  might  compel  God,  through  the 
working  of  some  law  about  which  we  know 
nothing,  to  destroy  it  completely,  to  wipe  it  out 
of  existence.  There  are  those  who  think  that 
that  will  be  the  end  of  the  persistently  and  con 
sistently  wicked — annihilation.  But  such  be 
lief  is  contrary  to  the  physical  law  of  the  con 
servation  of  matter  and  the  conservation  of 
force,  which  law  we  have  tried  to  carry  over 
into  the  spiritual  world.  Nevertheless,  if  that 
helps,  if  it  is  valuable,  use  it;  for  after  all 
truth  is  generally  to  be  tested  by  its  value,  by 
its  workability. 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  other  side  of  the  pic 
ture, — to  the  question  of  reward.  If  there  is 
punishment,  and  if  it  flows  naturally  from  the 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     245 

violation  of  law,  then  there  must  also  be  a 
cofcrse  of  events  which  will  give  to  virtue,  to 
courage,  to  self-control,  to  determination,  and 
to  all  the  rest  of  the  heroic  attributes  of  men 
and  women  their  just  measure  of  reward.  God 
begins  to  reward  us — does  He  not? — in  this 
life  without  waiting  for  the  unknown.  We  are 
like  children  at  school;  we  get  just  as  much 
advancement  as  we  work  for  and  deserve  in 
this  life,  and  then  we  go  on  into  the  endless 
reaches  of  eternity,  not  merely  enjoying  the 
reward,  but  expanding,  and  developing  the  vir 
tues  upon  which  the  reward  is  grounded. 
Heaven  then  becomes  not  a  place  with  jasper 
walls  and  golden  streets  and  harps.  Heaven 
becomes  a  state  into  which  free  spirits  pass, 
now  and  for  ever. 

A  saintly  old  man  was  working  in  his  garden 
one  Saturday,  when  there  came  by  a  neighbor 
— a  Seventh-Day  Adventist — on  his  way  to 
church. 

"  Aren't  you  afraid  you'll  not  go  to  heaven — 
working  as  you  are  on  the  Sabbath  Day?  "  said 
the  latter. 

"  Not  at  all,"  smiled  the  old  man,  from 
among  his  roses  and  his  grapes.  "  Not  at  all. 
I'm  in  heaven  now !  " 

It  was  a  sage  reply,  and  the  old  man  knew 
all  its  implication. 


246     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

The  one  truly  great  quatrain  in  the  "  Ru- 
baiyat  "  is  this :  • 

"  I  sent  my  soul  through  the  invisible, 
Some  letter  of  that  after  life  to  spell; 
But  by  and  by  my  soul  came  back  to  me, 
And  answered,  '  I  myself  am  Heaven  and  Hell ! ' " 

We  believe,  then,  in  heaven — not  a  literal 
heaven  any  more  than  a  literal  hell ;  but  we  be 
lieve  in  a  spiritual  heaven  that  begins  here  and 
continues  for  ever.  We  believe  in  a  growth 
that  begins  in  a  poor,  feeble  way  in  us  here,  and 
through  threescore  years  and  ten  makes  a  cer 
tain  amount  of  progress;  and  then,  through 
thousand  after  thousand  of  years,  when  we  shall 
be  free  from  the  trammels  of  this  flesh,  makes 
additional  progress  and  development  on,  on, 
on,  upward,  always  upward  toward  the  light. 
So  we  believe  in  the  persistence  of  personality 
after  death.  We  shall  know  each  other  there. 
If  we  persist  as  personalities  we  must  know 
those  personalities  that  "  we  have  loved  long 
since  and  lost  awhile  " ;  and  we  must  see  them 
once  again,  or  we  shall  be  like  lost  souls  upon 
the  marshes  and  dark  lakes.  We  must  see  and 
clasp  them  once  more.  We  must  commune 
with  them,  talk  with  them  more  freely  than  we 
were  ever  able  to  talk  with  them  here,  hin 
dered  as  we  are  by  the  flesh  and  by  the  limita 
tions  of  communication  that  are  ours.  When 


POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE     247 

spirit  with  spirit  shall  meet,  hearts  shall  flow 
into  hearts,  communicating  without  tongue  and 
without  speech;  and  we  shall  need  no  eyes  to 
see ;  but  shall  know  even  as  also  we  have  been 
known.  We  shall  work, — aye,  we  shall  have 
tasks  to  do.  We  shall  sing, — yes,  if  we  feel 
like  it,  we  shall  sing.  We  shall  laugh  when 
we  wish  to  laugh.  We  shall  feel  as  we  always 
have  felt,  spiritually,  emotionally,  profoundly. 

There  is  truth  in  the  "  Last  Chanty  "of  the 
sailors  who  were  dissatisfied  that  there  was  no 
more  sea ;  tired  of  the  glassy  floors  and  wind 
less  shore ;  and  who  plead  that  the  Lord  would 
"  Take  back  the  golden  fiddles  and  let  them 
beat  to  open  sea." 

So  the  Lord 

"Called  the  good  sea  up  to  Him, 
And  'stablished  its  boundaries  unto  all  eternity; 
That  such  as  have  no  pleasure 
For  to  serve  the  Lord  by  measure, 
Might  enter  into  galleons  and  serve  Him  on  the  sea. 

"  Sun,  wind,  and  rain  shall  not  fail  from  off  the  face 

of   it, 

Stinging,  ringing  spindrift,  nor  the  fulmar  flying  free; 
And  the  ships  shall  go  abroad 
To  the  glory  of  the  Lord 
Who  heard  the  silly  sailor-folk  and  gave  them  back 

their  sea." 

It  was  a  brave  epitaph  Robert  Louis  Steven 
son  wrote  for  himself,  which  is  engraved  upon 
his  headstone  in  far-away  Samoa : 


248     POWER  OF  AN  ENDLESS  LIFE 

"  Under  the  wide  and  starry  sky, 
Dig  the  grave  and  there  let  me  lie ; 
Gladly  I  lived,  and  gladly  die; 
And  I  lay  me  down  with  a  will. 

"And  this  be  the  verse  you  grave  for  me: 
'  Here  he  lies  where  he  longed  to  be ; 
Home  is  the  sailor,  home  from  the  sea, 
The  hunter  home   from  the  hill.' " 

It  is  the  song  of  a  man  with  a  philosophy  of 
life  and  death  sufficient  to  maintain  him  in  the 
hardness  of  the  one,  and  sustain  him  in  the 
darkness  of  the  other.  There  was  no  doubt  a 
strong  stream  of  hereditary  Christianity  in  the 
philosophy,  even  though  it  does  not  rise  to  the 
surface  in  the  poem. 

Not  less  brave  and  far  more  buoyant  with 
hope  and  faith  is  the  swan-song  of  the  poet- 
laureate  of  the  Christians,  when  he  was  about 
to  cross  the  bar.  Though  it  was  sunset  and 
the  time  of  the  evening  star,  though  he  heard 
the  bell  and  the  one  clear  call  for  him,  he  prayed 
that  there  might  be  no  moaning  of  the  bar 
when  he  put  out  to  sea ;  for  he  said : 

"  I  hope  to  see  my  pilot  face  to  face 
When  I  have  crossed  the  bar!" 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 

Los  Angeles 


A        «T™'l'lllllll»MIIII|||||||||||/||||Jjl 

M     000924419     5 


